Harbinger of Hell
by Yasundai
Summary: Ever since demons started appearing around town, many people have gone missing, murdered, captured and dragged to hell. Word spread all over the world of the same case, villages became ghost towns, and cities became bloodbaths. Soon, humans fought back.
1. Contract 1: Mercenaries

Ever since demons started appearing around town, many people have gone missing, murdered, captured and dragged to hell. Word spread all over the world of the same case, villages became ghost towns, and cities became bloodbaths. Soon, humans began to counter this massacre, demons slaying then became a business.

Yakushi Yasundai was one of those who participated in such business, along with his support unit, Darren Hound. They both live in an underground facility of their own, high tech computers and gadgets filled the whole area, that's where Darren's specialty lye, he's the support and contractor for Yakushi. He wears a black hoody and black jeans, and is always armed with a revolver.

Yakushi on the other hand is the one who does the dirty work, skilled, accurate and agile, he's one cold slayer. He wears a tactical vest with, limb guards, swat helmet, two combat knives on the back of his lower torso, and a gas mask, all specially manufactured by Darren himself. Under the mask he wears glasses and has a scar on his right eye, he received it when he was attacked by a demon for the first time, though knowledge of what happened remains a mystery to Darren. Yakushi uses a wide arsenal of guns to do his job, a dead eye gunslinger.

"Yakushi, I got us a contract, this is worth a lot of money.." said Darren.

"How much?" asked Yakushi.

"Says here, half a million, for slaying a Gigapede that's been sited 5 kilometres southeast of here."

"Then what're we waiting for?" said Yakushi as he loaded a desert eagle.

Yakushi then suited up and proceeded to the garage, right in front of him was his means of transportation, a chrome black Ford Mustang GT. As for Darren, he headed to the rooftop and there parked was his helicopter, specially modified with high tech gadgets and weapons.

"You ready?" radioed Darren.

"As always... let's move.." said Yakushi as he pushed down his gas mask.

Darren took the sky and provided air support while Yakushi sped his way to the contract site. Along the way, Yakushi noticed quite a number of bloodied alleys and streets.

"Looks like we missed the party.." he thought.

"Take a left turn, your ETA should be 30 seconds." Radioed Darren.

"Roger that..."

Yakushi accelerated and started shifting gears, then made a drifting left turn. He was now in visual of the contract site.

"I have a visual on the Gigapede.." said Darren.

"Mark it... we're not letting this one run.."

"You got your rocket launchers with you right?"

"What rockets?"

"What the? You didn't.."

"Relax... I've got a new trick up my sleeve.."

"Uh... fine, roger that..."

Yakushi then stopped and parked his car, he got out and had a visual on the Gigapede.

"I've got a visual.." he said.

The Gigapede was flying around diving down to strike on other humans, the military was there but they were completely useless, a number of them were seen swallowed up by the Gigapede.

"Well the military's having a bad day today.." said Darren.

"That's cute... so much for defending the city then.." said Yakushi as he opened his trunk for his guns.

Yakushi armed himself with 3 frag grenades, 2 Desert Eagles, and an FNF2000 Rifle.

"You're kidding me right?" said Darren.

Keeping silent, Yakushi calmly walked towards the Gigapede, then he whistled at it to get its attention. The Gigapede heard it and turned towards Yakushi. It roared and then started to charge at him.

"This is half a million man, don't blow it..." said Darren.

The Gigapede continued to charge at Yakushi, just when it got near him, it started to open its mouth. But the moment it opened, Yakushi dashed towards it and slid under its mouth, avoiding himself from being swallowed. While sliding he quickly pulled out one of his combat knives and stabbed the body of the Gigapede, then dragged it as he tried to climb his way up the Gigapede. It growled in pain as Yakushi was still cutting it up, he then pulled out a grenade and shoved it inside the open would. He holstered his knife and dashed on its body to its head. The grenade exploded and it raised its head and growled, Yakushi was then hanging on to one of its tendrils near the head and fired his rifle inside the mouth.

While hanging on, he kicked its jaw to bring himself back up on its head and threw another grenade in its mouth in mid-air. He landed on its head and stabbed his combat knife on its head, the grenade exploded and blood gushed out of its mouth. The Gigapede then started flying around with increasing speed, but Yakushi was still hanging on with the stabbed knife. His knife was tweaked so the blade was able to detach and a string was holding the blade and the handle together, it was like a grapple hook now. He then planted his feet on it and fired more rounds on its head, but the Gigapede started flying higher and higher.

"Yakushi! You're gaining altitude! Suggest you get off the Gigapede ASAP... You won't be able to breathe much in higher altitudes even with your gas mask!" radioed Darren.

"Time to end this..." said Yakushi.

He slung his rifle back and used his knife to slice open a wound near its brain and shoved the last grenade he had in it. He retracted and holstered his knife, and then jumped off the Gigapede. Once again the grenade exploded and now the Gigapede was looking straight up in the sky. Both the Gigapede and Yakushi were now in free fall.

"Yakushi!" shouted Darren.

Yakushi just smirked and pulled out his two desert eagles, spotting the wounds he made, he started to fire all rounds into them. Every shot was a direct hit to the Gigapede's wounds, it growled and tried to use its body to knock Yakushi out for a final attempt. But as its body made contact with him, Yakushi then holstered his magnums and this time pulled out both his combat knives. He slashed one single spot repeatedly and then stabbed it and dragged the blades down. The attack broke Yakushi's fall, enabling him to land safely.

And then, the Gigapede crashed right behind him as he spun and holstered his knives.

"There... one dead Gigapede... happy?" said Yakushi.

"You have some funny way to kick demon ass man.." replied Darren.

"Call it style.."

"Pack it up and let's go get our money.."

"Roger that."

But before they were able to return, Yakushi heard a scream and several gunshots.

"Great... side jobs eh?" he thought.

"Now what?..." said Darren.

"You go on ahead, this one's mine, just get our money and meet you back at HQ."

"Try not to get yourself killed..."

"You know me."

Darren then pulled away from the field, and Yakushi followed the sound of the screams to a dark alleyway. But just before he got there, everything was silent, all he saw was a dark Alley. He took a step forward, he felt that he stepped on something liquid, he looked down to see that he stepped on a pool of blood, then a demonic voice echoed,

"Got you..."


	2. Contract 2: Black Death

Yakushi performed a reverse round house and countered the attacking demon, he kicked it and it flew back and hit a wall. The demon then sank into the ground in an attempt to escape, but before it completely disappeared, Yakushi pulled out his knife and launched the blade at it, it pierced through the shoulder of the demon and he yanked it out of the ground.

"Trying to escape eh?" he said.

The demon then faced him and gave a smile, it then started to rip its chest open, and there was a bright light coming out of it. Yakushi covered his eyes and used his knife as a grapple hook to get to high ground. After a while, the light was gone and so was the demon that unleashed it, but all that's left was a black fog, and it quickly spread all over the place.

"Black fog?" thought Yakushi. "This can't be good."

He then heard gunshots from a nearby area, he then decided to head towards it via jumping from roof to roof. Along the way, he noticed that the black fog has covered a huge portion of the town already, but it seems to have stopped spreading. Not just that, even houses were on fire, and the screams of death polluted the area. But aside from all those, Yakushi decided to head towards the nearest sound.

When he got there, he saw two guys fending off a huge group of demons, Msiras, inside the fog. One of them was wearing a black hoody, jeans, limb guards and was armed with a SCAR-L assault rifle, while the other guy was wearing an arctic camouflage jacket with a black shirt inside, with jeans and is armed with a fire axe. Yakushi knew it was a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. Yakushi switched the vision his mask to thermal vision, pulled out his desert eagles and jumped right in the middle of the two guys and the demons.

"Woah! What the?" shouted the man with the fire axe.

"Is it another demon?" asked the guy with the assault rifle.

Yakushi then dashed towards the demons and begun his attack, a Msira attempted to strike his head, but on the last second, Yakushi slid and leaned his body backwards, avoiding the attack, and then blasting the Msira away. Another Msira attempted a low attack, but Yakushi avoided it by performing a back flip and kicked its face. The other Msiras surrounded him while he was still stepping on one of them, he pointed his gun at the one he was stepping on, he then fired three rounds and kicked its body away. The other Msiras then decided to strike him in all angles, leaving Yakushi having no means of escape from an all out attack.

The two guys however were lost and weren't able to see what's going on, the fog blocked their view, all they could hear is the sound of gunshots and falling bodies.

"W-what's going on?" shouted the man with the axe.

"Hell if I know... what the... look out!" shouted the man with the rifle.

A Msira appeared behind the man with the axe and performed a leap, the man with the gun took aim and pulled the trigger, but unexpectedly, his gun jammed.

"Oh shit!" he said.

The man with the axe backed up and tripped, dropping his axe, the Msira was already about to go for the kill.

"OH MY GOD!" he shouted.

But just on the last second, a gunshot was heard and the Msira's body landed on the man.

"Ugh! Get it off!" he said as he shoved it off.

The fog cleared up and they saw Yakushi just standing there, surrounded by dead Msiras.

"Woah..." said the man with the gun. "He took them all out..."

"Ugh... who is this guy?" said the other man as he picked up his axe.

The black fog was clearing up everywhere, Yakushi then holstered his weapons and removed his helmet and mask.

"That's odd, black fog's clearing up..." thought Yakushi, then he directed his attention to the two men.

"Hey!" shouted the two men.

"You two would've been Msira scrap... close call."

"Yeah, good thing you came by, much appreciated, name's Azaria Hawke." Said the man with the gun.

"And I'm Liang Noah, just call me Noah..." said the man with the axe.

"Yakushi Yasundai... what were you two doing here? What's that black fog and screams about?" asked Yakushi.

"Hell if I know, we were trying to find out ourselves." Said Noah.

"How exactly?"

"Uh..."

"Look, just go home and stay with your families, they're probably looking for you."

"That's the problem... we've got no family... not anymore.." said Azaria.

"We lost them to demons about a week back." Added Noah.

"You two siblings?" asked Yakushi.

"Cousins actually..." said the two.

Yakushi gave a sigh and but his helmet and mask back on, and walked away.

"H-hey! Where're you going?" asked Noah.

Yakushi ignored Noah and continued walking, then he was out of sight.

"Great, he left us for dead..."

"Guess it's just us again." Sighed Azaria.

The surrounding area was now a ghost town, and the two of them were nervous. All of a sudden, the sound of death and demons disrupted the silence.

"Great... More demons... here we go.." said Azaria while he loaded his rifle.

"I still can't believe Yakushi left us here." Said Noah.

"Either way, I'm not going down without a fight."

The sound of raging demons started to get louder, they know where Noah and Azaria are, and they were somewhat shivering of fear. From an alley, more Msiras started to appear, it was a whole horde.

"Oh Great..." said Azaria.

The Msiras started charging, and the two were preparing for an attack. But out of nowhere, the loud sound of a powerful engine filled the air, and a chrome black mustang GT appeared and rammed the attacking Msiras, it drifted and had its side facing the two. The doors opened and they saw Yakushi inside.

"Get in if you want to live." He said.

Noah was shocked that Yakushi came back, feeling relieved that it wasn't the end for him yet.

"Well what're you waiting for? Get the hell in!" shouted Yakushi as he shot the other attacking Msiras.

"Right! Noah! Let's go!" said Azaria.

Noah and Azaria hopped in the car and quickly shut the door, Yakushi then threw a little bag outside and then made a 180 drift and sped away.

"Uh... out of curiousity, what'd you just throw out the window?" asked Noah.

Yakushi threw a little device to Noah, he barely caught it and wondered what it was.

"Squeeze it and you'll find out." Said Yakushi.

Azaria immediately recognized the device,

"Wait, isn't that a..."

Just before Azaria could finish, Noah already squeezed it, and there was a huge explosion behind them.

"Woah!" shouted Noah.

The explosion wiped out everything in the surrounding area, and Yakushi just drove away as if nothing happened.

"That was no ordinary c4 was it?" asked Azaria.

Yakushi remained silent and continued driving, the road was clear and they could hear police sirens heading towards the explosion site. By the time they arrived, Yakushi and the two were clear of the area, all traces of them gone, they disappeared.

"So where're we going?" asked Noah.

Yakushi remained silent and continued driving, ignoring all comments from Noah and Azaria. He just kept driving, until they arrived in front of an abandoned house.


	3. Contract 3: Dark Memories

oYakushi parked the car inside the abandoned house garage as the door to it closes. All of a sudden, the ground started to descend, it was an elevator.

"Woah!" said Noah and Azaria.

The two got a view of Yakushi's HQ and were shocked, despite looking like a dump from up top, it looked like a mansion full of military equipment down below.

"Well you took your time Yakushi.." said a familiar voice.

"I took a detour." Said Yakushi as he got out of the car. "I think I've solved your body guard problem now."

"What do you mean?"

"Hey, Azaria! Noah! Get out here."

The two popped out of the car, still amazed by all the equipment and such.

"Sooo coooollll..." drooled Noah.

"This is really high tech." Thought Azaria.

"So what're their names?" asked Darren.

"The one with the rifle is Azaria, and the other guy is Noah, they're cousins. Their family was wiped out, I guess you could say these two are the last of their clan." Said Yakushi.

"Alright, I'll take it from here then."

"Roger that."

Darren approached the two, with his hands at his back.

"Greetings." He said.

Noah and Azaria broke off from their wonder and quickly stood up straight and bowed.

"Hello Sir! Thank you for letting us enter your headquarters!" said the two.

Darren then turned his head towards Yakushi, and gave a shrug.

"I'm going to have to ask you two to turn in your weapons."

"Y-Yes sir..." said the two.

They both handed their weapons to Darren, he took them and placed it on a table. He then gave both the axe and rifle a thorough analysis.

"This is all junk! It's a miracle Yakushi was able to step in for you two..." he said.

"HEY! Now listen here!.." shouted Noah.

But before he could finish, Yakushi placed his hand in front of him and shook his head.

"He's like that, get used to it... besides, he's doing it again..." said Yakushi.

"Doing what?" asked Azaria.

"You'll find out soon enough... Darren! How much time do you need?"

Ignoring Yakushi, Darren was gathering all sorts of tools and equipment.

"I guess we'll have to wait until morning..." sighed Yakushi. "Up to you where you guys want to sleep, we've got so many bedrooms we aren't using."

"Why do you guys have so many bedrooms anyway?" asked Noah, staring at the corridor.

"... Nothing... just pick a room or something, I'm gonna hit the sack."

Yakushi then entered his room and shut the door, Noah and Azaria then stared at each other, both of them had the feeling something was up.

"I don't know about you but I'm guessing there's a story behind this.." said Noah.

"Come to think of it, Yakushi did sound a bit hesitant for a moment, but let's go to that another time. Right now I think we should be lucky we're in here." Said Azaria.

"True that..." yawned Noah. "now let's get some shut eye... I've got dibs on the top bed!"

"Whatever man..."

Yakushi however, in his room, wasn't in the brightest of moods, he took off his helmet, mask and vest, and threw them to one corner. He opened the window and turned off all the lights, leaving the moon to shine upon his room. He stood in front of the window stared at the moon and gave a sigh, then, he closed his eyes as he recalled the past. He remembered the past of the headquarters, on why the rooms were empty.

"It's been a while since I've thought back..." he said. "aw hell..."

When Yakushi was 8, the rooms were occupied by his entire family, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts and all the sort, they were one big clan. Until one night, one his way home from his favourite candy store, having a lollipop in one hand and a bag of candies on the other. He suddenly had the feeling that he was being watched, he was scared as he started to walk faster, and then he started running. He then reached his home, but it wasn't the same as it was. All the lights were out, and everything was quiet, lightning and thunder struck as a storm was coming along, Yakushi rushed in and tried to turn on the lights, but it seems that there was no more power. Lightning flashed and blinded little Yakushi, but from that flash, he saw a blood trail on the floor. He felt chills all over his body and decided to follow it. The trail led him to the basement, but he was too frightened to enter, so he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a pair of knives. Slowly, he entered the basement, there the blood trail lead to only one room, he dropped his bag of candies and lollipop and leaned on the wall next to the door, with his knives at hand, he prepared to lunge at whatever's behind there.

"Is...is.. is anyone there?..." he said with fright.

But lightning struck again and this time, it was raining heavily. Yakushi gathered all the courage he had, and quickly opened the door and entered a combat stance. But what caught his eye almost killed all life in him, the blood trail ended to a pile of bodies, being eaten up by various sorts of demons.

"No... No... This is just a bad dream... No..." panicked Yakushi.

The demons turned their attention to Yakushi and glared, while little Yakushi just stood there, sulking.

"Mum... Dad... Uncle... Auntie..." He cried out his entire family.

The demons however growled and sprinted towards Yakushi.

Just standing there, helplessly crying, all of a sudden little Yakushi's eyes glowed red and he screamed out loud. He stabbed the first demon he saw in the head, and sliced its head off with his other knife.

"You will all die!" growled Yakushi.

He eradicated every demon in the room, but little Yakushi wasn't himself anymore that time, his voice greatly changed, and his eyes were still glowing red. He obtained a few sever wounds but he still moved like as if he wasn't even hurt. In the end, every single demon in the room was slain. Covered in blood, Yakushi dropped the knives and fell to his knees, the glow in his eyes faded away and he was just left there to mourn for his dead family, he's the last survivor of the Yasundai clan.

"Son of a bitch..." said Yakushi as he stopped recalling the past.

His eyes flashed red as he tried to cover his eyes from the moon, his head then started to hurt, but after a while, the pain faded away.

"Damn... what the hell am I now?.." he thought as he touched his scar.

His vision all of a sudden started to get blur, then he got really dizzy and collapsed on his bed.


	4. Contract 4: White Chicks

The next morning, Yakushi woke up to surprise, he wondered what happened the other night. He checked his vitals and temperature, thinking that he was sick, but he was perfectly normal.

"Was that all a dream?" he thought.

"Hey Yakushi!" shouted Noah as he knocked on his door.

"Aw man, I just woke up..." murmured Yakushi. "What do you want?"

Noah then entered the room.

"The hell, I didn't say come in!"

"Uhm... you asked what did I want... I wanted to come in... and so I did."

Yakushi just glared at him, with his eyebrows twitching.

"What?" gasped Noah.

"What is it? I just woke up you know.."

"Your friend... Darren... He is one awesome guy! He made my axe into some sort of ...well... It's no ordinary axe anymore!"

Noah pulled out his new and improved axe, it was heavily modified, the blade was bigger and is able to shift to different angles. It even has a pair of shields attached to each side of the handle, activating it would cause both parts to merge forming a bigger shield.

"Isn't it awesome?"

"That's Darren the nerd for you."

"I know! I can't wait to test this baby out when a demon appears!"

"Yeah great... Now go away..."

Yakushi literally kicked Noah out of the room and shut the door.

"Ouch..." said Noah. "Hey that was rude you know!"

"No different from you barging in my room!" shouted Yakushi.

"But you asked what I wanted... so I..."

Before Noah could finish his sentence, a bullet suddenly burst out from the door and passing through his face by a millimetre.

"I'm going! I'm going!" panicked Noah.

Noah sprinted away from Yakushi's room and bumped into Azaria.

"Woah watch where you're going man..." said Azaria.

"Sorry, Yakushi seems a little worked up for some reason... I wonder what got him.."

"Oh joy... you were showing off your new toy weren't you?" said Azaria raising an eyebrow.

"Hah! No way man... as if I'd show off such a piece of..."

Darren was sitting on a nearby couch when he overheard their chat.

"Piece of?" he interrupted.

"OH! DARREN! Uhm... Piece of brilliant work!"

"Speaking of brilliant work, Azaria your rifle is finished, it's on the table behind me, go check it out."

Azaria approached the table to check on his rifle, he could barely recognize it now. It has a reflex sight, the stock is adjustable, and the barrel itself could rotate horizontally, switching from a rifle muzzle, to a shotgun muzzle.

"Well son of a mother's lover... you are the man Darren, this is amazing!"

"Yeah, but know that you both army bodyguards now, I make and give you good toys, you both better be good at protecting me."

"Yes sir!" saluted the two.

Yakushi then came in, dressed up in a tuxedo.

"Woah... what's the occasion man?" asked Darren.

"I've just got to be somewhere... Got any contracts by the way?" asked Yakushi.

"None, but take your two friends, just in case..."

"You mean us?" asked Noah.

"You both are in charge of safeguarding Darren, two friends he's referring to are my duel desert eagles." Said Yakushi as he pulled his weapons out.

"Sweet!" added Azaria.

Yakushi then headed out, got into his car and drove to the town cemetery. The town was peaceful, yet suspicious, only very few people were seen walking the streets. It's been a usual since demon attacks anyway, they even occur in the light of day.

"Would it kill to at least teach people to kill demons?" thought Yakushi.

Yakushi arrived at the cemetery, parked his car and made his way to the graveyard on the hilltop. On his way there, he encountered four people covered in white hooded cloaks, walking away from the graveyard. As he passed by them, he felt some aura that gave him chills.

"What the?" he thought. "Man who are those guys..."

He turned back to see that those four just continued to walk away, thinking that something was wrong.

"Just my imagination..."

Yakushi then continued his way, but those four people looked back at Yakushi, walking away with his back turned. One of them nodded, and they all dispersed and disappeared. Yakushi made it to the top of the hill, there lied multiple grave stones, all with the last names Yasundai carved on it, it was his deceased family's grave. Yakushi sighed and sat on the grass, the laid back and looked at the sky.

"Sometimes I wonder if hell's running out of room... so many demons.. so little time..."

Suddenly Yakushi heard movement in the nearby bush, he quickly got up and pulled out his pistols. But it turns out, a little bunny popped out of the bush.

"Well if it ain't bugs bunny." He said as he holstered his guns. "Come here buddy, I won't hurt you."

The bunny hopped right into his hands and sniffed his fingers, Yakushi brushed its pure white fur and petted it a lot.

"IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!" He thought.

Yakushi then shook his head and placed the bunny down.

"Aw man, a demon slayer who loves bunnies... How does that go?" he said to himself.

Yet again, there was another struggle in another bush, it caught Yakushi's attention and thought that there was another bunny or cute animal.

"Come on little buddy..." he said clapping his hands.

But it turns out, a kunai flew out of it, heading straight for Yakushi's face.

"SON OF A!" he shouted as he fell backwards, dodging the kunai.

But from another angle, Yakushi heard the cocking of a rifle, he quickly performed a back flip as the sound of gunfire was heard. He dodged the bullet and tried to pull out one of his pistols, but from out of nowhere, a whip grabbed it and took it away.

"What the? Hey!" he shouted.

He turned to the direction of where the whip came from, and saw that its one of the four persons in white he passed by earlier. A shadow then covered Yakushi, he turned and looked up, another one in white was about to slice him from up high with dual katanas. He dived to the side, avoiding the attack, pulled out his pistol and took aim.

"Ok... can't a guy visit his dead relatives without anyone trying to kick my ass?" he complained.

The four in white then gathered with all their weapons drawn, one holding multiple kunai and throwing knives, another carrying a sniper rifle, the third carrying a whip and Yakushi's second gun, and the last one carrying dual blades.

"Great, four against one, you all play with such fairness... Just who are you guys?"

The one with blades turned to the whip user and nodded, the whip user then threw Yakushi's gun back to him.

"At least you let me fight in full gear then.." said Yakushi as he caught his gun and pointed it at them. "So... who are you guys? What do you want?"

The four in white then removed their cloaks, they were all female. The kunai user, wearing a white battle suit with black trims, was armed with a huge number of throwing knives attached to her thighs and katana attached to her back waist horizontally. The rifle user, wearing a white long coat with sky blue trims had multiple pistols inside her coat and an intervention sniper rifle at hand. The whip user, wearing also a white battle suit but with purple trims, had a pair of snake blade swords attached to each thigh and a whip at hand. Finally the last one with dual blades wore a pure white battle suit but of different design compared to the others. She had a pair of sheaths attached to each side of her waist, and a single samurai armour plate attached to her right shoulder. And comparing her to the others with long straight hair, she's the only one with a bob hairdo.

"All girls? In white? Great... I'm not feeling too good about fighting you all now.." said Yakushi.

The blade user, then stepped forth.

"Very impressive avoiding all our attacks like that, though you lost a pistol." Said the blade user.

"Yeah well, I wasn't really expecting a fight in a graveyard, especially in the morning..." said Yakushi. "Now answer my question... who are you?"

"If you want to find that out, try to beat us all..." said the whip user.

"Yeah well, this doesn't seem like a fair fight now does it?"

"Well if you ..." said the blade user.

But before she could even finish, Yakushi dashed right into the middle of all four of them.

"What the?" said the kunai user.

"How'd he?" gasped the rifle user.

Yakushi performed a 360 low kick, but all of them avoided it by jumping away. While spinning continuously, Yakushi fired both his guns rapidly, spreading bullets in all directions. But it was interrupted by the whip user using her whip to grab his leg and spin him in the opposite direction, only faster. Yakushi got dizzy then fell to the ground.

"Holy shit... aw man I'm gonna throw up...shit..." he complained.


	5. Contract 5: Outside Help

With Yakushi dizzy from the counter attack by the whip user, the kunai user started to throw multiple blades at once. But Yakushi quickly recovers and jumps behind a tree, the blade user than charges towards him and slices the whole tree with one strike. Once again, Yakushi manages to avoid it, by jumping high up.

"She cut down a whole tree with one strike… either her blade's really sharp, or she's that strong.." thought Yakushi.

Yakushi notices a flash from below, it was the reflection of the scope of the rifle the rifle user was using, and she was pointing it at him.

"Aw shit…" said Yakushi.

"You're mine now.." said the rifle user.

She pulled the trigger and Yakushi was left helpless In mid air, no way to dodge the bullet. But Yakushi blasted the bullet away using his guns. The rifle user started firing more rapidly, but Yakushi countered by shooting the bullets off with his bullets.

"Good accuracy…" they both thought.

Both of them ran out of ammo, the rifle user jumped backwards behind her allies to reload. Yakushi landed on the ground, but had no time to reload, the whip and blade user started charging towards him.

"Of all times to run out of ammo…" said Yakushi.

The whip user attempted to strike him, but Yakushi dodges to the side. He prepares for the blade user's approach, but she suddenly disappeared right in front of him.

"What the?" he thought.

The blade user suddenly appeared behind him in a flash, Yakushi tries to dodge, but he barely does, he ends up having his coat ripped.

"Aw man… hey! This was a nice coat you know!" he said.

Ignoring his comment, the whip user started spinning her whip in the air, then striking it down on Yakushi, creating a whirlwind and sending him in the air again. The rifle user returns, fully loaded, but this time she's armed with dual MP7 submachine guns. Before she opened fire, Yakushi ejects the empty magazines from his guns and kicks them towards the rifle user. She dodges the incoming mags and takes aim, but Yakushi already reloaded and started to open fire. All of them dispersed except for the blade user, she dashed towards him in mid air and sliced every bullet flying towards her.

She strikes but Yakushi parries by using the barrels on his guns, and the blade user slashes every bullet directed at her, despite being point blank. The kunai user then throws an explosive dagger towards them, the blade user kicks Yakushi and performs a backflip to avoid the explosion range. But Yakushi catches it and threw it high into the sky.

The women in white regrouped and Yakushi just landed on the ground, next thing they knew, the dagger explodes in mid air, and rain started to pour heavily on them.

"Alright, who are you girls? What do you want from me?" said Yakushi as he took off and threw away his ripped coat.

"We've been fighting for quite a while, and we only ripped his coat, and we outnumber him." Whispered the kunai user to the rifle user.

"You … you're the mercenary they call Yakushi right? Yakushi Yasundai right?" asked the blade user.

"What's it to you?" he replied."Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Cai Bi Bao." Said the blade user.

"Jenova Altair." Said the rifle user.

"Name's Samantha Grey." Said the kunai user.

"And I'm Norami Okawa." Said the whip user.

"We're all cousins, so we're all related." Said Cai.

"Alright, now I know who you are, but it's still unclear to me what you girls want." Said Yakushi.

"We're looking for help actually…" sighed Jenova.

"By attacking me?"

"Consider it testing you.." added Samantha.

"Well your attack costed me my suit so, I don't see how I'm going to help you all."

"We'll have it remade for you." Said Cai.

"Ok set me a target and consider it done."

"That was easy…" thought Jenova.

"Well, we need your help killing a demon, many people have disappeared, all of them female." Said Jenova as she handed Yakushi a folder of photos.

Yakushi noticed that all the victims in the photos are young women, and from the looks of it, they were raped before killed.

"The target's a lustful one isn't he?" said Yakushi. "But the four of you fight well, why not kill it yourselves? It's just one demon isn't it?"

"Trust me, we've tried, he's really strong, even with the four of us." Said Norami.

"So what makes you think I can fight this demon on my own?"

"We know you defeated a Gigapede all on your own, rare to know someone who did something like that."

"Please, we want to end the deaths of our fellow people… he's claimed our families already…we wish no more deaths." Said Cai.

Yakushi pulled out his cellphone and called Darren.

"Hey Darren….. We've got us a gig, get the gear ready." He said.

"And I thought I was the contractor… "replied Darren.

"Just get it ready…"

Yakushi shut his phone and turned to the girls.

"I hope I can trust you all in this, cuz if this is a trap…" said Yakushi.

"I promise you…. It's not.." said Cai.

Yakushi looked into Cai's eyes, showing that she really means it, and is really wanting to put an end to the attacks.

"Very well…. You all are not from around here are you?" said Yakushi.

"No." replied Norami. " We're from the Haiten Village, 5 days travel south of here."

"Pretty long way from home just to seek help…"

"Our village doesn't exactly have people willing to help."

"Well that sucks… anyway, whatever the case, I'm not familiar with the Haiten village, so you all will have to guide me in."

"Sure, we'll…"

"Without you trying to kick my ass…" interrupted Yakushi.

"I promise you, we won't attempt to harm you again…" said Cai.

"…. Alright then…. We will move out tomorrow morning… do you all have a place to stay?"

The girls didn't answer, as they obviously had no place to stay, looking at each other nervously.

"I'll take that as a no…" said Yakushi. "Come on… you all can stay in HQ, we've got room."

"Really?" said Jenova.

"That'd really be awesome!" shouted Samantha.

Yakushi escorted the girls into his car, and made their way to his headquarters. He wasn't sure what was really going on, the village of Haiten used to be a really peaceful place, and it used to have some of the best demon slayers. They were about half way towards his headquarters, Cai was seated right next to Yakushi, while the three remain at the back. All of them were asleep, except Cai, who was staring out into the darkening sky.

"Something on your mind?" asked Yakushi.

"Huh? Oh,… just thinking about what would happen tomorrow." Said Cai.

"We'll get'em… As long as.."

"We don't kick your ass… we know hehehe." Giggled Cai.

"Good…. I would've won though if that battle went on."

"Yeah right! We would've beaten you!"

"Keep dreaming, you were four, I was one!"

"We're girls!"

"Girls with killer moves!"

"We would've won!"

"No you wouldn't!"

"Yes we would!"

"No you wouldn't!"

"Yes we would!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" said the two at the same time.


	6. Contract 6: The Contractors

Yakushi and the girls arrived at the headquarters, Azaria was standing guard nearby, all suited up and heavily armed.

"Welcome back sir!" saluted Azaria.

"Good to see you Azaria.." said Yakushi.

"Ran into demons sir? Sorry to see your coat's been through hell.."

"Yeah it kinda has been…." Said Yakushi as he looked at the girls.

The girls pretended they didn't hear what he said and just looked around, acting innocent.

"Friends of yours?" asked Azaria.

"They're the contractors, we've got another situation." Replied Yakushi.

Darren and Noah then suddenly popped out, all geared up and prepared to discuss the contract, but Yakushi's ripped suit caught their attention.

"Woah dude! What happened to you?" gasped the two.

"Long story, anyway, these girls will fill you in on the mission." Said Yakushi, pointing at the girls.

"Oooohhh…. Four of them… what are the odds? Four guys and four girls….. mwuahahaha!" chuckled Noah.

"Oh shut it!" said Azaria knocking Noah's head.

"Ouch!"

"…. The hell.." murmured Norami.

"If you all would follow me, let's go to the briefing room." Said Darren.

Darren lead everyone else to the briefing room, while Yakushi went to the armory to suit up. He didn't put on his usual tactical vest, instead, he put on a black leather sleeveless shirt, and a black long coat over it. He took up a pair of mp7s, a double barrelled saw off shotgun, dual wield anacondas, and dual katana, one attached to his waist, and the other to his back. Suddenly he heard someone step in, he turned his attention to the direction of the noise, and he saw Jenova standing there, in awe.

"Oh… it's you…" said Yakushi. "Shouldn't you be at the briefing room?"

"Cai said that she'll be the one to fill Darren out, and we've got your friend here to watch over us in the meantime." Said Jenova.

"Friend? Which one?"

"The one who made that weird comment earlier…. Noah is it?"

"Oh... I see… you shouldn't be in here just so you know… usually we don't let strangers in the armory."

"Oh, I'm sorry… but I'm just quite amazed on what you have here! Scratch that, I'm SO AMAZED!"

The armory was really big, even Yakushi couldn't see the other end of the room that clearly, the whole place was literally filled with weapons and armor, all from melee weapons to high calibre and explosives.

"It's like nothing I've ever seen before! Oh my God.. so many rifles!" she gasped.

"You're quite the sniper aren't you?" asked Yakushi.

"I've been practicing on my own a lot.."

"Oh wow that's…. wait…. ON YOUR OWN? ONLY?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"No teacher? No master?"

"Nope, just only me, heeheee." Giggled Jenova.

Yakushi thought back to when he fought Jenova, she had superb accuracy, and despite using a semi auto rifle, she fires like a real full auto gun, it amazed him greatly. Yakushi noticed she was using a heavily modified and detailed Springfield rifle, of white and gold in color.

"That's quite a rifle you've got there…" he said.

"Oh… yeah… thanks… but it's nothing compared to what you have here!.. AWPs! Interventions! 50 Cal Barret! WOW!"

Samantha then suddenly popped into the armory too, turns out she was looking for Jenova.

"Hey! Jenov…. Woah!" she gasped.

"Samantha! Oh man check out the armory!" shouted Jenova.

Samantha was also amazed of the size of the armory, but she wasn't much of a gunner, until she noticed a section, full of different types of Knives and throwing blades.

"Oh my God! I can't breathe!" she said. "Those are awesome!"

"Oh but… Sir Yakushi here said that he doesn't really allow strangers like us to touch anything, let alone be in here…"

"Aww really?"

Yakushi pushed up his glasses and gave a sigh.

"Just don't hurt yourself…" he said.

"REALLY? AWESOME!" said Jenova and Samantha as they went off to browse the armory.

"And stay in my sights so I can keep an eye on you all!"

"We will sir!"

"Just how old are these girls?" thought Yakushi. " They fight really well, but from how they behave and look, they're so young… tch… Then again, I'm only 18 years old myself… compared to other mercenaries, what? Like twenty plus already.."

Yakushi just watched the two girls enjoy browsing the equipment while Noah was just sitting on a couch, right beside Norami.

"I see you use a whip…" he said. "show me a few moves out there in the battlefield eh?"

"Uh… yeah.. sure.." said Norami, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe you could like… show me…"

"Give it up Noah…" interrupted Yakushi. "I wouldn't mess with her if I were you…"

"Oh don't worry, I've got it all under control."

When Noah turned back to Norami, she wasn't there anymore, she was walking inside the armory to join Samantha and Jenova.

"Uh..uh…" whined Noah.

"Yeah, smooth…"

"Oh shut up.."

Azaria, Darren and Cai then exited the briefing room, Darren now has all the details on the mission, and Azaria was getting a bit nervous on his first assignment.

"Yakushi, get your gear ready… we'll head out in 5 hours, same goes for Azaria and Noah."

"Sir!" said Azaria and Noah.

"Roger that…" said Yakushi.

"Uhm…" said Cai.

"Something wrong?" asked Darren.

"Is it alright if we could use some of your equipment? Our weapons are actually quite… well…. No good anymore.." said Norami as she looked at her whip.

Norami's whip looked chipped off, and part of it was burnt, it was in no condition to last a long fight anymore. Jenova's rifle, despite looking good on the outside, the mechanism has rusted and the trigger has been getting tough to pull now. Samantha's daggers were running low, and some of them had missing parts, some of them are just glass with a handle taped on them. Finally Cai's blades were blunt, cracked, and the blade is waggling from the handle.

"Well, then, leave your weapons my room, I've got plans for them." Said Darren rubbing his hands.

"Don't worry, he's a master at this…" added Yakushi. "Then again… obsession is a different story."

"By morning, these babies will be good as new!" shouted Darren as he dashed into the armory to get his tool box, and then ran straight for his room, and shut the door.

"Alright, ever since… well, the event when we met, I bet you're all tired and hungry." Said Yakushi. "You go to your rooms, and freshen up, I'll call you when dinner's ready… Azaria, Noah, help me out here."

"Sure.." said the two.

"We appreciate the hospitality, thank you very much." Said the four girls.

"You know those four are.." said Noah.

"Shut it Noah!" interrupted Azaria, knocking Noah's head.

"Next thing I'll know you've become the target we've been looking for, the demon raping and killing people in the Haiten village." Added Yakushi.

"I'm playing! I'm playing!' complained Noah.

"….. Maniac…" said Azaria and Yakushi.


	7. Contract 7: Bloody highway

Everyone went to bed and rested up for the mission the next day, all except for Cai and Samantha, they went to the living room and looked out at the moon, thinking about what would happen tomorrow. The thought of it troubles them, and it wasn't long since their family fell victim to demons.

"Do you think we'll actually save the village? End this terror?" asked Samantha.

"I really intend to Samantha… I really do… we've got extra hands now, I know we can work this out." Said Cai, confidently.

"We'll finally be able to avenge our familes and friends."

"Definitely….." sighed Cai.

"How many has this demon killed already?" asked a familiar voice.

Cai and Samantha turned to see who it was, it was Yakushi.

"Sorry, I just…" he said.

"It's alright…" interrupted Cai. "We've lost our family and friends to the demon.."

"We lost many innocent lives too…" added Samantha.

Yakushi sat down and thought for a moment, he figured that there's more than one demon at work here. Cai and Samantha then explained to him how many lives were lost and how, though, at one point, Samantha started to tear up, it was still hard on her, the loss of her family, same goes for Cai, except that she tried to hide it.

"You alright?" asked Yakushi.

"Y-Yeah… I'll be fine…" sniffed Samantha.

"It's going to be ok in the end, I just know it…" said Cai.

"It will.." added Yakushi. "Your clan and people will be avenged…"

"Damn! Why can't that damned demon just die from aids stage 6 on top of that!" shouted Samantha.

"Ok, of all things?" said Yakushi, scratching the back of his head. "Anyway, look, it'll all be over tomorrow… we'll hunt down that hell spawn…. But anyway, shouldn't you two be resting up for tomorrow?"

"Y-yeah, good idea…" said Samantha. "Good night.."

Samantha then made her way to her room, Yakushi looked at Cai and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" she said.

"Shouldn't you be joining her?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"….." Yakushi was moving his eyes left and right, thinking of what to say. "The demon should die of aids!"

"What the? Ok…. That was random… but then again, Samantha said the same thing…"

"Anyway…. So you lost your family to demons eh?..." said Yakushi, looking out at the moon.

"Wait what? How'd you? We never said…" exclaimed Cai.

"I know… the feeling, the pain…. Everything.."

"…what…What do you mean?... don't tell me…"

"That's right… I'm just like you girls, last survivor of the clan….. except, no other cousins around."

"Oh my God….."

Yakushi looked at Cai and gave a smile, but she saw right through that smile, he was hurting as much as they were, but he didn't want to show it.

"What can we do anyway?... there's no rewind button in life…. To think one would be really handy now.." he said.

"Tell me about it…." Sighed Cai. "Even karma's not being fair now a days…. Almost like it's making us do the work now."

"Agreed there…. Anyway, tomorrow's going to be payback time, so we'd better rest up, I don't want anyone getting killed out there."

After saying so, Yakushi proceeded to his room, Cai took one last look at the moon, then closed her eyes.

"If only the world was a better place…. The only thing left to do is fight." She thought. "Well, whatever the case, I'm sure, we shall never surrender."

The next morning, everyone was gearing up for the hunt, and the girls weapons are finally finished.

"Woah!" shouted the girls.

"There you go! Now you're prepped for battle!" said Darren.

"Way to go Darren!" added Azaria.

Jenova's rifle became something else, it now uses high calibre rounds, a high tech scope has been added, the barrel now could switch to different types and lengths, same goes for the grips and stocks, she found it more comfortable to use now.

Norami's whip wasn't much of a whip anymore, or rather it didn't look like so. It was now a broad sword, but on the handle, there was a button, when she holds it and swings the sword, the blade divides itself to multiple segments though maintaining connection to each other, a bladed whip.

Samantha now wouldn't have to worry about daggers running out anymore, she was given a small bag containing two chrome gold and silver kunai. And every time she throws a dagger, a string is attached and is able to retrieve it on the spot. Very similar to Yakushi's twin daggers, only more advanced. Aside from the string feature, she could combine the two blades, and another pair of blades will pop out, and she could use it as a windmill shuriken.

Finally, Cai's blades were heavily modified, it wasn't dual katanas anymore, one blade was meant for backhand use, silver and black in color, the blade was shaped like a snake, and on the bottom of the hilt, a grappling hook was attached. The other blade however, maintained its katana shape, golden and red in color, the blade was sharp and shiny, even touching it already cuts a deep wound.

"Well you can admire them later, we've got to roll!" said Darren.

"Right!" said the rest.

Yakushi boarded his car, and had the girls for passengers, Darren then proceeded to the heliport along with Azaria and Noah.

"Systems check, how's everyone doing there?" radioed Darren.

"We're all set, on standby, waiting for your go…." Replied Yakushi.

"Roger that, green light! Go!"

The garage door and ceiling opened, Darren was in the air and Yakushi was already speeding away. They sped through town, and on to the highway, but it seems the sight around wasn't pretty. The road may be clear of vehicles but blood stains pollute the whole area.

"The hell?" said Azaria. "What happened here? All blood, but no bodies…"

"There was barely any commotion last night! How the hell!" shouted Noah.

"Whatever did this… I'm guessing it's still around, keep an eye out!"

The highway was now a bloody road, literally, a few bashed up vehicles along the sides too, and barely a body in sight. Not until halfway down the road, Yakushi hit the brakes.

"Woah! Why'd you stop Yakushi?" asked Darren.

Yakushi got out of the car and drew out his dual katanas, the girls also followed but wondered what was going on. Yakushi then pointed ahead of the road.

"Look…" he said.

The guys in the helicopter also noticed what Yakushi saw.

"Dear God.." said Azaria.

Jenova used her sniper scope to see what was ahead, and she was shocked, a whole horde of hell reapers stood in the way. They were outnumbered greatly.

"There's so many of them!" said Jenova.

Cai then stepped forth and drew her swords.

"I think we could use a warm up, don't you think?" she said.

"You crazy? There's too many of them!" shouted Darren.

Ignoring Darren's comment, Cai dashed towards the demons, it didn't matter to her how many they were.

"I think I could test my new toys here then!" said Samantha as she followed up after Cai.

"Lock and load baby!" shouted Jenova.

"Hey! Back me up eh?" said Norami as she also began charging.

The three girls charged in while Jenova gave long range cover. Darren had no other choice but to give them air support, he flew in while Azaria and Noah rained bullets down on them.

Yakushi then had an idea pop in his head, he sheathed his swords and got in the car.

"Jenova, get in! I've got a hell of an idea!" he said.

"Roger!" she replied.

Jenova got in the car, and peeked her head out of the window and fired more shots. Cai, Samantha and Norami were already tangled in combat with the demons, ironically, they were smiling while fighting.

Samantha was making her daggers fly while slicing everything in the way, she threw a dagger straight into a demon's head, then pulled it towards her, sending the demon flying right at her, and then kicking it away full force, the body flew back and tackled other demons.

"WOOHOO!" shouted Samantha.

Norami made altered her sword modes often in mid combat, she clashes her sword with a demon's scythe, then turns it to a whip and impale the demon at the back. She sends the body flying in the sky and does a low strike in every angel, the demons surrounding her were sent flying.

That's when Jenova comes in, she spots the demons Norami sent flying, took aim and fired multiple rounds rapidly. All shots were headshots, when the bodies landed, Norami moved to a different location, the bullets were then beeping faster and faster. After a while, each bullet blew up and the explosion killed surrounding demons.

"Pure skill…." Smirked Jenova.

"Better get your head in, it's going to get bumpy!" said Yakushi.

Jenova brought herself back in the car, opened the window and took aim. Yakushi did the same thing, he pulled out his pistol and opened the window. He stepped on the gas and charged towards the demons at top gear. Just before the hit, he does a quick turn, the car spins and tackles other demons. While spinning, Yakushi and Jenova shot every demon in sight. Jenova then dived out of the window and Yakushi opened the door and simply walked out of the car, he drew out his dual katanas and Jenova switched her gun to shotgun mode.

The whole team regrouped, and they were surrounded.

"Let's rock!" shouted Yakushi.


	8. Contract 8: Warmup

"Let's give'em hell!" shouted Jenova as she loaded her gun.

"Go!" shouted Yakushi.

All combatants charged towards the demons in every direction, even Jenova, despite being a gunner. A hell spawn tried to slice her with its death scythe, but she avoids by performing a front flip, and giving it a headshot midway. She lands and notices another attack coming in, she leans back ( like the matrix ) and grabs the blade with her feet, then kicks it up to the sky.

"Jenova!" shouted Yakushi as he threw her his pistol.

Jenova quickly gets up and catches the pistol as she sees two hell spawns about to strike her simultaneously. She defends with both her rifle and Yakushi's pistol, then shoves them away and performs multiple spins while blasting the two guns away.

Cai notices two demons charging towards her, she then dashes towards them, as the demons struck, she performs a front flip and slips in between the two attacks. Half way she slices both in half and does a drop kick, sending the top half of their bodies to tackle other demons. Without looking, she shoves her blades backwards and stabs a demon, then jumps and kicks the demon, sending her flying, she slices every demon in the way, and she ends with a roll. She stands up, blows up her bangs and gave a smirk, all the demons she slash just died in an instant.

"WHOOO! Don't mess with DASHIT! YEAH!" she shouted.

Azaria and Noah were raining bullets from the chopper, while Darren tried to get close in and use the chopper blades to slice some up.

"You are one crazy pilot you know that?" shouted Noah.

"I know right! It's what makes this job fun!" shouted Darren.

Azaria then jumped down from the helicopter and grabbed the ledge on it, leaving him hanging, he pulls out his rifle, loads it with explosive rounds, and took aim.

"Get down lower!" he shouted.

"What are you doing?" asked Noah.

"Just keep me covered!"

"Going down!" said Darren.

Darren made the helicopter dive down low, Noah shot other demons attempting to jump on with the attached turret. Azaria then managed to reach down and kick one in the air and blasts it with the explosive round. He landed a direct hit and it fell back to the ground, he then flips back inside the helicopter, but drops a few bags on the way up.

"What the?" said Noah.

"Say goodnight!" said Azaria as he pulled out a detonator. "Fire in the hole!"

Azaria activates the detonator and there was a huge explosion, he smiles and reloads his rifle.

"Woah!" hey! Don't you think you could've hit the others down there?" shouted Noah.

"Hahaha! I made sure to aim first! Duh!" said Azaria as he took aim again.

The others on the ground ignored the explosion, and continued to fight on. Norami and Samantha were fighting back to back.

"Get down Samantha!" shouted Norami.

Samantha then does a wide and low sweep, sending all the demons nearby up in the air. Norami then switches to whip mode and starts spinning it over her head again and again, till it created a huge gust, sucking up the nearby demons. Those who were sucked in suffered a tornado of blades, then Norami switches back to the sword mode, jumps up in the air, and on the way down, she slices every demon that was flung up.

"That was messy!" said Samantha.

"You're welcome hahaha!" replied Norami.

"My turn!"

Samantha did the same wide sweep again, she jumped to a demon and gave it a brutal stab, and she did so again to the next one and so on. Before all those demons that flung up landed, they were all dead. Samantha's speed was so fast, it was almost impossible to see her move.

"Cai! Back me up!" she shouted.

"Alright! Replied Cai.

Cai attempted a fake attack, she dashed through the demons, but didn't strike them. The demons sadly mistaken the attack and shifted to a defensive stance, leaving their backs open to Samantha. Cai then appeared behind Samantha, Samantha jumps and Cai swings her blades, but on the flat part of each blade. Samantha kicks the blades as Cai launches her away, as if she was hitting a tennis ball.

Samantha then stabs the first two demons she sees, and released the blades, she wrapped the chains from her blades around the demons necks. When Samantha landed, she pressed the button on her daggers to retract the chains. All the demons she tagged was beheaded.

"That's gotta hurt!" shouted Norami.

"Way to go Samantha!" cheered Cai.

"Oh yeah! Can't touch this!" said Samantha as she started dancing.

Yakushi on the other hand was somewhat having fun killing demons, the others could hear him shouting and whooing about. A demon struck him with a scythe, but he defends with his dual katanas in a cross position, but he cheats but leaving one katana to hold the scythe and using the other to stab the demon. He then uses the same blade and blindly stab behind him, hitting another demon. He kicks the body off the blade and started dashing through the demons, unleashing a swift flurry of strikes. But he got a bit sloppy after a while, a demon managed to get a hold of his back, and another tried to strike him, Yakushi successfully defends with one blade, but the strike knocked it off his hand.

"Yakushi!" shouted Jenova as she threw back his pistol.

Yakushi catches it and blasts the head off the demon holding him. He leans backwards avoiding another demon strike, the blade was about to touch him, but he defends by letting the blade hit the gun.

"Getting sloppy there!" shouted Jenova.

"No, just too much fun… I guess!" said Yakushi as he blasted another demon's head. "Just how many are there anyway?"

"I don't know, but I'm ready for anything!"

"Hate to break it to you guys.." radioed Darren. "But at this rate, we won't have any energy or ammo left to finish our contract…. "

Just after he said that, the ground started to shake.

"Woah what's going on?" asked Norami.

The demons then started to back off slowly, then sank into the ground.

"Where are they going? What's going on?" asked Cai.

"YAKUSHI!" shouted Darren.

"Dude! What the hell! Don't shout in the radio! You're gonna make me deaf! The hell is it?"

"Sorry but I'm picking up something big, really big!... It's coming from the skyscraper right in front of you!"

Just beside the area they fought in, there was a skyscraper, and it started to show weird things. They spotted something big moving inside. The clouds have now gone dark, and a storm is approaching.

"No way…. It's an argosax!" shouted Azaria.

"Argosax?" The hell is that?" asked Cai.

"Argosax… one of the biggest demons in the world…. It's scary too…. Usually it's advised to run from it.. and I suggest we do…" said Jenova.

"We're going to earn big in this one man…" said Darren.

"Great… but we still have a contract…" thought Yakushi.

"Hey Cai!" said Yakushi. "You think we could hold our contract for about 10 more minutes? Give me 10 minutes, before we head to Haiten….. this guy's going to cause a lot of trouble in town anyway.."

"Not like we have a choice anyway! Let's go for 10 minutes!" shouted Cai.

"So much for avoiding it… oh well… lock and load baby!" shouted Jenova.

A gigantic hand suddenly popped out of the building, then, the image of a head trying to break out. The looks of it can scare people to death, same goes for size, it'd be like fighting a building, literally.

The giant demon then raised its hand, and had it come crashing down on them, but they evaded by jumping away.

"Darren, I suggest you take this from far range…" said Yakushi.

"Agreed there… " said Darren.

"Wait! Yakushi!" said Jenova.

"What is it?" asked Yakushi.

"Get me up on the chopper! I think I can do more good from the air…"

"Alright, it's much safer anyway… Darren! Better…"

Before Yakushi could finish, Jenova just jumps up to the chopper, despite its high altitude.

"Oh right… I forgot they're well trained…" thought Yakushi,

"Look!" shouted Norami.

The argosax finally revealed itself, having half its body sticking out of the building.

"Ok… we need a plan…" said Yakushi.

"Yeah, what do you have in mind?" asked Samantha.

"… I don't know… that's why I asked you all…."

"Uh… what the?... never mind….. I've got an idea! But do whatever I say! Simple as that!" said Cai.

"You're planning as you go aren't you?" asked Norami.

"Isn't that why I'm DASHIT? Hahaha!"

"I hope your plan works…. Otherwise I'm improvising…" said Yakushi. "Hey Darren… better do as she says….. maybe she's getting somewhere with this…. After all, it's the first time we've seen an argosax right?"

"Y-Yeah! Right! I'm so…. Excited! Come on baby!" said Darren as he pressed a button on his controls.

Darren's chopper had weapons deployed out, and the side turrets now use larger bullets. Rocket and missile pods deployed from each side as well, and finally a double Gatling gun turret just below the cockpit for Jenova to use.

"Let's kick some ass!" shouted Darren.

"WHOOOHOO!" shouted Noah and Azaria.


	9. Contract 9: Argosax the Chaos

Darren unleashed a barrage of bullets and missiles on the argosax while circling around it.

"YAHOO!" he shouted.

Noah and Jenova opened fire with their turrets, while Azaria was modifying a number of explosives. The others below dispersed and struck each of the argosax's body parts. Samantha went off to target the left arm, while Norami got the right. Cai tried to circle around and get the back while Yakushi went straight on for the head.

Norami used her whip and held down its arm, but due to its big size, it was a futile attempt. She ended up being lifted in the air and tried to bring herself up on its arm. She does so successfully and continuously whips the arm. Samantha was also facing a similar problem, she tried to hold the arm down, but she retracted her daggers before she got lifted up. The argosax tried to crush her with its hand but Samantha quickly dashes to the side.

"Damn it! It's so big!" shouted Samantha.

"Well duh!" shouted Norami.

Cai was having a hard time getting around the back, she jumped from building to building, but it kept attempting to blast her away with beams coming out from its mouth.

"Son of a!... Hey! Get its attention!" she shouted.

"Way ahead of you!" shouted Yakushi as he charged towards the argosax's face.

He jumps up high and lands a heavy blow on its face, it roars and turns its attention towards Yakushi, but he counters with a flurry of strikes. Turns out Yakushi just pissed it off, it started charging a beam in its mouth.

"Aw shit…" he said.

Yakushi was still in mid-air, and he couldn't do anything to move around or avoid, what's worse, defending the attack would be futile. The argosax then fired a gigantic beam towards him, Yakushi tried to shield himself with his arms, but just before the beam hit, Cai dashed in and grabbed Yakushi out of the way. The beam misses and hits a faraway building, causing a huge explosion.

"Holy shit! That was a huge blast!" shouted Cai. "Damn! We can't let it do that again!"

"Yeah! You got that right! Thanks for the assist!" said Yakushi.

"Save that for later, I've spotted its weak spot, but I can't get to it, I'll need all of you to distract it, keep its head away from me….. And, I'll need a some explosives…"

"Darren's rockets seem to work! I'll just radio him in when you give me a signal."

"No good, I need to plant the explosives inside! Not blast the hard skin, it'd be a waste! Like some c4 for something!"

Yakushi then remembered he always packs some modified c4's in the trunk of his car, he looks to where his car was left and thought of an idea.

"There's some explosives inside the trunk of the car, maybe you'd want to use those!" said Yakushi as he threw Cai the keys.

"Hey not to ruin the moment but we're fighting a giant mother…" said Darren as he started firing all guns.

"You do what you have to do, leave the rest to us…"

"Try not to make me come rescue you would ya?" said Cai.

"Hehehe….. roger that…."

Yakushi dashed off to take the argosax's attention, he withdrew his swords and pulled out dual submachine guns and started firing. Cai then headed for Yakushi's car and collected the explosives she needed.

"Norami! Samantha! Better change your tactics there! It's futile holding its arms down!"

"Damn it he's right!" said Norami.

"I've got an idea!" said Samantha.

The two girls then leaped away from the argosax and landed next to Yakushi.

"Can you radio Darren to take its attention, the fly over it, I need its head looking up!" said Samantha. "Norami, back me up!"

"Alright!" replied Norami.

"You hear the lady, get ready!" radioed Yakushi.

"Roger that, everyone on board hang on! Concentrate fire!"

Jenova, Azaria and Noah fired all high calibre rounds on the argosax's head. It attempted to knock the chopper down but Darren took evasive actions, he dodged it, and flew right past it, leaving the argosax facing its head up.

"Let's go Norami!" said Samantha.

Norami and Samantha then leaped on each of the argosax's shoulders, Norami the used her whip and swung it towards the neck, and same goes for Samantha, both their weapons were tangled together as both of them tried to pull it backwards, strangling the argosax. It roared in pain as it tries to get both of them off its shoulders, but they were out of its reach. Yakushi then jumped on top of its head, and stood in between its eyes, he pointed his submachine guns at each eye and blasted away.

"Cai! Now's your chance! Get'em!" shouted Jenova.

Cai then headed towards the back of the head, there its skin was the thinnest.

"Here goes nothing." She said.

Cai slashes a hole at the back of the head of the argosax and dives in.

"The hell?" said Noah.

"Did she just…" said Azaria.

Yakushi thought for a moment, then he realized what Cai was planning, he holstered all his weapons and said,

"We'd gotta retreat, NOW!"

"What? You crazy? What about Cai?" exclaimed Norami.

"She'll be fine! Let's go! Don't argue just go!"

Darren pulled his helicopter out of the way while the others on the ground ran and hid behind Yakushi's car. The argosax was enraged and started to randomly blast beams in all directions. All of a sudden, its head exploded and Cai was seen flying out of it.

"THIS IS DASHIT!" she shouted.

"WOOHOO! Way to go Cai!" shouted Jenova.

"Holy hell, she blew its head off…. Literally….. nice…" said Azaria.

"I'm going to make a note never to piss her off…" said Yakushi.

The headless body of the argosax dissolves as Cai lands right in front of Yakushi's car, blowing up her bangs.

"WOO! TAKE THAT MOTHER…" shouted Cai.

"Way to go Cai!" interrupted Samantha, hugging her.

"Now I ask myself, if she could kick an argosax's ass so easily, why get us for this contract?..." asked Darren to Noah.

"Beats me… As long as we're getting paid, I'm good." Said Noah.

"True that! Hahaha!"

After celebrating their victory with cheers and yells, the group boarded their transports and once again, made their way to the Haiten village. Both transports then follow a road that leads to a thick forest, but just after they entered the forest, Yakushi notices a helicopter facing their direction, getting the feeling they were being followed.

"I've got a visual, he's taking the road to the Haiten village….." said the chopper pilot.


	10. Contract 10: Haiten Village

The group travelled deep into the forest, and finally reached the Haiten village. It was already dark, and only candles lit the village, the group parked their transportations and proceeded to the village temple, where the elder stays. On their way there, many of the villagers were staring at them as they passed by, giving a hostile look.

"What's with the people?" asked Noah.

"It's rare that we have visitors who come inside the village, you'll get used to it." Said Norami.

"We're just here for the demon man, nothing less, once we kill it, we're gone." Said Azaria.

"Noted there.."

When they arrived at the main entrance of the temple, the front door guards approached them.

"Hold it right there!" said the guard. "What is the meaning of this? Why do we have strangers here?"

"We have to discuss it with the elder, let us pass…" said Jenova.

"No one's getting past us…" said the guard as he and his fellow men drew their weapons.

All of the guards were armed with pole arms and pointed it at the guys of the group. But Yakushi, Noah, Azaria and Darren drew out their weapons too, despite being outnumbered, both the guys and guards were in a dead lock.

"Hey! Stop it! We're not here to fight!" shouted Samantha.

"What is going on here?" said the voice of an old man.

The elder was standing on the entrance, the guards then lowered their weapons and took a bow towards him. The girls also did the same thing, Azaria, Noah and Darren as well, but Yakushi still remained standing, looking straight into the eyes of the elder. The elder also looked right back to Yakushi, Cai tried telling Yakushi to kneel, pulling his leg, but he didn't budge. The elder then gave a smirk and said,

"Come inside, you all must be tired."

The guards then rose and returned to their posts while the others proceeded inside. Inside the temple, wasn't even like a temple anymore, it was a throne room. The elder then took his seat on the throne chair while the group just stands in front of him. Suddenly, from behind the elder's chair, a man wearing a ripped black cloak, a huge scar on his face, ranging from his forehead to his lips.

"Greetings strangers…" said the man in a sly manner. "I am… the elder's advisor, before we …. Begin, I must ask that your weapons be, away from you inside this great temple…"

"Great… we've got ourselves a dragger…" thought Yakushi.

"Guards… please take their weapons. Don't worry, they will be returned when you leave the temple."

Everyone surrendered their weapons, but Yakushi only surrendered his blades, he pretended he had nothing else, but his dual pistols are still holstered inside his coat.

"Let's get started shall we?" said the advisor. "my name is Kurt Salazar, the ….. advisor to the elder."

"Get to the point…" said Yakushi.

"Show respect!" shouted a guard.

"Tch… whatever…" said Yakushi, rolling his eyes.

"Straight to the point it is! What are you outsiders doing here? Or rather, WHY, did you bring them here?" shouted the advisor as he turned to the girls.

"With all due respect sir, we've been facing our current crisis for almost a month and we haven't been able to do anything about it on our own." Said Norami.

"So your solution is running away from the village? Breaking the rules and seeking outside and corrupted help?"

"Watch it there.." added Yakushi.

"Is that a threat?" said advisor Salazar, as he approaches Yakushi. "You actually dare…"

"Oh I dare…"

"Enough of this!" said the elder. "Cai Bi Bao, who are these people? They can help us?"

"Yes sir, we believe we may need their help…" replied Cai.

"And yet you four are some of the most skilled warriors here! We don't need outside help!"

"Trust me sir! We do!" added Samantha.

"Really… Aren't they mercenaries?"

"Yes…"

"Well, do you have the coin to pay the contract fee then?" asked advisor Salazar.

The girls then looked at each other, so far they only claimed to Darren that they could pay after the contract is over. They never really had the money to pay, Yakushi could tell just by looking at how they reacted.

"So you didn't…"

"They already gave us a full payment in advanced, just so that we could finish this earlier." Interrupted Yakushi.

"What the?" thought the girls.

They were surprised, Yakushi covered for them, but Darren was lost, wondering if they really got paid or will be paid.

"And how much exactly?" asked advisor Salazar.

"That's none of your concern.." said Yakushi.

The guards obviously didn't like how Yakushi was talking, and they were holding on to their weapons as if they were going to strike.

"Well, either way, we've sent many great warriors to kill this… demon! But none have returned! Your tricks, will do no good….. NO GOOD!"

"Zip it!" said Yakushi as he stuck his pistol on advisor Salazar "Or I'll pierce that big nose.."

"What the? Guards! I thought I told you to take their weapons?"

Yakushi then pulled out his other pistol and pointed it to the nearest guard. The guards on standby pointed their weapons at Yakushi and the others.

"That's enough!" shouted the elder. "All of you! Lower your weapons!"

The guards followed the elder's instructions and lowered their weapons, Yakushi gave a smirk then withdrew his pistols.

"If you can deal with our current crisis, then fine, let's see what you can do…. Maybe it's time to bend a rule or two, we'd also like to see how the outside people perform in battle…. Cai, Samantha, Norami and Jenova…..."

"Yes elder?" the girls replied.

"Since you four were the ones who brought him here, you will be the ones to assist him, despite being the contractors, they're your responsibility now."

"Understood…."

"You all must be tired, maybe Jenova you have a place for our guests to stay?"

"Yes, of course." Said Jenova.

"Well then, off you go…"

The group then took back their weapons and exited the temple, the guards still aggressive towards Yakushi, giving him the killer look.

"I'm sorry about earlier, we're not accustomed to having visitors.." said Norami.

"Don't be, we weren't used to visiting anyway." Said Darren.

"Come on, my house isn't far from here!" said Jenova, running ahead.

"Hey! Wait up!" shouted Cai.

The Haiten village was quite a nice place, but Yakushi had suspicions when he saw the elder's advisor, Salazar.

"I have a bad feeling about this." He thought. "Better be on guard then…."


	11. Contract 11: The Devil Within

The group made their way to Jenova's house, it was really big, almost like a mansion.

"THIS IS YOUR HOUSE?" asked Noah.

"Yup!" smiled Jenova.

"She has the best house in the village! Hahaha!" said Norami.

"Nah! Not really… Anyway come on! Let's go inside!"

"Hold on, Darren, we left our transports outside the main gate remember? We'd better get'em before people get…. Curious…" said Yakushi.

"Oh yeah! You're right! Let's go get'em! You all go on ahead, we'll catch up!" said Darren.

"Alright, see you later."

Noah, Azaria and the girls then proceeded inside Jenova's house, while Yakushi and Darren made their way to the main gate to get their transports.

"You find that advisor suspicious don't you?" asked Darren.

"Tell me about it, something's wrong here… let's just stay on guard." Replied Yakushi.

"Roger that…. Hey, also….."

"What?"

"Why'd you fake that the girls paid us already? Come on man! We kill for a living here…"

"We would've been off the contract and we'd also have to abandon the girls and this village too. We're not going to let this slaughter continue."

"You sure you're doing this for the village?... AH! Wait! I get it now!"

"What are you talking about?" said Yakushi raising an eyebrow.

"You like one of the girls don't you? Hahaha! Oh yes you do! You're trying to impress one of them! Who is it? Cai? Samantha? Norami? Or Jenova?"

"What the? No way!"

"Don't deny it man! Hahaha! It's obvious!"

Ignoring that comment, Yakushi knocked Darren on the head.

"I'm not trying to impress anyone you fool!" he said, giving Darren a straight face.

"Oww! Alright alright! Whatever you say! I'm still telling the girls!" smirked Darren as he ran off ahead.

"Say what?"

"I said! I'M GOING TO TELL THE GIRLS YOU LIKE ONE OF THEM!"

"YOU ASSHOLE! GET YOUR ASS HERE!" shouted Yakushi.

Yakushi ended up chasing Darren all over the village, some people were wondering what's going on but the two ignored everyone. Darren was laughing all the way, shouting the same comments to Yakushi, while Yakushi just wants to kick his ass.

"Come back! I just want to punch you!" shouted Yakushi.

"Which girl is it? Eni mini maini mo!" teased Darren.

Darren already made it to his helicopter but he just froze after seeing it, Yakushi finally catches up and was about to punch him, but he holds back as he observes what Darren was looking at. Their transports were fine, but on the road, was the black fog, the same as the one that appeared in the city. The fog was quickly approaching, the air suddenly became colder, and a chill breeze blew past them.

"I don't like the looks of this…." Said Darren.

Yakushi then got closer and looked deeper into the fog, he noticed that it wasn't just a fog, there was something inside it, he could spot a pair of glowing and horrific eyes within.

"Oh shit….. Darren, get into the chopper and warn the others…" he said.

"What about you?" asked Darren.

"I'll hold it off, whatever it is… probably the guardsmen will also assist, I don't know, just go!"

"Try not to get yourself killed…."

Darren boarded his chopper and took off, going back to Jenova's house. The guards nearby noticed the black fog and started to sound the alarm.

"Black fog!" a guard shouted, ringing the town bell.

Yakushi then drew out his pistols, but he realized, he ran out of extra clips. He check what he had left, and counted only six rounds left, three on each pistol. He also searched himself for his katanas or knives, but he didn't find any.

"Shit… Jee Yakushi…. How well prepared are you now?" he said to himself.

A squad of guardsmen stood in front of the main gate, getting in a defensive position. Just as the black fog was right in front of them, it cleared out and a demon appeared, and it wasn't an ordinary looking one. Its whole body looked mashed up, really grotesque, it had three giant arms, one bare handed, the other carrying a meat hook, and the last one a giant cleaver. Yakushi couldn't keep a straight face while looking at it, it had the stench of rotting corpses and its left eye was just dangling on its face.

"What the hell is that?" shouted a guard.

"Who cares? Kill it!" shouted another.

The squad attacks it but it just merely sweeps them away with its cleaver, more squads were sent in to attack, but the same thing happened to them, massacred. Yakushi couldn't just stand there and do nothing, he looked at his hands and closed them. Yakushi then dashed towards it, unarmed, attempting to kill it with his bare hands. The demon attacked with its cleaver, but Yakushi jumps and dodges the attack, he lands on its arm and ran on it, going straight for the head. The demons tries to grab him with the bare hand but Yakushi was out of reach, the moment Yakushi reached the demon's face, he gave it a strong kick and broke its jaw.

Yakushi jumped off it and fired the rest of his bullets into its head, all six bullets went straight in, and the demon fell to the ground. The remaining guardsmen and townsfolk cheered for Yakushi, giving him a round of applause, but it was broken off when the demon suddenly stood up again, and forcefully reconnecting its jaw with its own hand.

"You've got to be kidding me….. six high calibre bullets in the head and this son of a bitch is still alive?" gasped Yakushi.

The demon then gave a loud roar, and filled the air with the bad stench of death, everyone, including Yakushi couldn't stand the smell. Most of them just dropped to the floor, and the demon started releasing gas from its mouth.

"The hell is this?" said a guard.

"We've got to get back!" said Yakushi as he wrapped his sleeves around his mouth and took a giant leap backwards.

Yakushi coughed and coughed, until he dropped down to his knees, holding his chest. He then suddenly felt dizzy and was about to drop. He notices the demon slowly approaching him, he tries to stand up, but he ends up coughing a lot more, and his dizziness was getting worse. The demon was now right in front of him, it then raised its giant cleaver as it prepares to strike down Yakushi.

"N..No!" he said.

The demon then roars as it drops its cleaver on Yakushi, but just on the last minute, Yakushi's eyes flashed red, and in an instant, he sent the cleaver flying, and kicks the demon backwards. The was a cloud of smoke that covered Yakushi, but he casually walks out, with his eyes glowing red, deeply breathing. Yakushi then stretched his hand forward, and a sword appeared on one hand, and a sheath on the other. The blade was a katana, sparking with red lightning, has a black blade with glowing engravings on it. The sheath had strange markings on it, and the symbol of a demonic dragon that glowed red.

"You… foul demon… are not worthy as my opponent.." said Yakushi.

Yakushi's voice sounded completely different, it was like hearing two voices at once, his normal voice, along with a demonic, and hollow voice. Yakushi disappeared in front the monster and then reappeared behind it. When the demon turned around, he merely dashed right through it, giving it one slice. He flipped his blade and slowly slides it in his sheath, just before it completely went in the sheath, he paused, the clicked it in. All of the demon's arms were cut off, in just that instant when Yakushi dashed right through it. The demon roared in pain, but veins started to grow out of the severed arms and connect to the ones Yakushi cut off, it was regenerating itself. Yakushi's glowing eyes started flashing repeatedly, until the blade he was holding disappears, and then his red glowing eyes went back to normal, he suddenly dropped to the floor, his chest was hurting a lot and he was really dizzy, he couldn't stand up.

The demon turned back and saw Yakushi's body, it was enraged as it was about to throw its giant meat hook at him. But before the hook even reaches his body, a gunshot was heard, Yakushi tries to look towards where the shot was heard, but his view was really blurry.

"Yakushi!" shouted a familiar voice.

It was Azaria, he stood next to Yakushi and opened fire on the demon, soon more guards and the rest of the group came in.

"Get Yakushi back to the house, Samantha will escort you!" said Jenova.

"Right!" said Azaria.

Azaria grabbed Yakushi and made their way back to the house, along with Samantha. Noah then charged towards the demon, and jumped up high, targeting the head. Cai and Norami managed to sever the arms of the demon to give Noah an opening. Noah lands a fatal strike on the demon's head, he then steps on his axe to sink it deeper in.

"Slice it open! We need a shot at the heart!" shouted Cai. "Jenova it's up to you! It regenerates fast on its body, we don't know if we'd have another chance!"

"Ready when you are!" said Jenova, loading up her gun.

"Alright! Let's do this!" shouted Noah.

The demon was again regenerating its arms, Noah removed his axe and sliced from its face, all the way down, splitting the front skin and revealing its insides.

"Ugh that is sick… Take the shot already!" shouted Noah as he jumped away from the demon.

Jenova was taking aim, she took some time, but the demon was already regenerating, closing the opening to its heart.

"Come on Jenova! Take the shot!" shouted Noah.

Jenova then held her breath, and then fired a round, the bullet went straight in for the heart, just before the skin regenerated. The demon's heart was destroyed as it fell to the ground, and then dissolved and sank underground.

"God that was a sick piece of shit!" said Norami.

"Nice shot Jenova!" said Cai as she gave Jenova a hi five.

"Come on! Let's regroup back at my house! I don't know but it seems like Yakushi was injured or something!" said Jenova.

The group the rushed their way back to Jenova's house, but throughout the whole battle, someone was watching from behind the shadows. Spying on the whole thing, witnessing Yakushi's demonic nature.


	12. Contract 12 : Jenova  Part 1

A few days after the demon attack, Yakushi finally wakes up in one of the rooms in Jenova's house, he was still feeling a little dizzy, he tried to get up, but the dizziness prevented him from standing.

"Aw hell…" he said. "Of all things to get, why dizziness?"

He suddenly imagined images of him being a devil, of that sword that appeared on his hand. But he couldn't tell was it real or another nightmare. But aside from that, he felt really weakened, he was hungry and couldn't really move much in his state.

"Great… now I need to go to a hospital…. How long have I been out?" he thought.

Yakushi looked out the window and saw that the village was peaceful, at least for now. From the cold air and thin fog, he imagined it'd be morning. Someone then opened the door and entered the room, holding a bottle of water and some medications, it was Azaria.

"Oh Yakushi! You're awake!" he said.

"Azaria? What happened? How long have I been out?" asked Yakushi.

"Relax, I heard the demon you fought knocked you out cold, we arrived just in time to pull you out of there. And don't worry, the demon's dead, but sadly many lives were lost, thought we lost you since you didn't wake up. It's been almost a week since you were out cold."

"I see….."

"Samantha was crying thinking you were dead or something, little girl would be really surprised now hehehe."

"Hehehe, is that so, guess time to turn that frown upside down eh?"

"Hahaha! You got that right! Can you stand?"

"I'm still in no condition to even open my eyes without getting dizzy, so not really, no." said Yakushi as he closed his eyes. "Guess the best way for me to feel better is if I keep my eyes shut till the dizziness wears off."

"I brought some medication, they'll speed up your recovery."

Azaria then handed Yakushi the medicine and water, Yakushi took it all in and just laid there in bed, with his eyes closed.

"I'll tell the others you're up! It'd stop Samantha from crying anyway, not nice to see a little girl cry no?" said Azaria.

"Hehehe, very well, I'll…. Well, just be here." Replied Yakushi.

Azaria went off to fetch the rest of the group, they were all just sitting around the living room, thinking of their next move.

"Hey guys! Good news!" shouted Azaria.

"What'd you get?" asked Darren.

"Yakushi's awake! Come on!"

"What? Yakushi's awake?" sniffed Samantha.

"Come on!" said Azaria.

The group made their way to the room Yakushi was in, Yakushi heard the door open and turned his head to their direction, but still with his eyes closed.

"Oh God… Yakushi… you're alive…" said Jenova.

"Yakushi!" shouted Samantha as she hugged Yakushi's arm. "Don't ever do that again! I thought you were dead!"

"I'm alive, well… yeah…. I'm alive, so try not to cry eh?" said Yakushi.

"God you're so reckless!" said Samantha, hugging his arm harder.

"Told you he was tough to kill…" Cai.

"Who said I was easy in the first place? Hehehe." Smirked Yakushi. "Where am I anyway?"

"In my house…" said Jenova.

"House? More like mansion you mean!" added Noah.

"You're still in my house! Hahaha!"

"Wow, that explains this really soft bed hehehe.." said Yakushi.

Everyone heard the doorbell ring, Jenova went down to see who it is, it was advisor Salazar.

"Advisor! What're you doing here?" she asked.

"I heard that the young lad is awake?" said the advisor.

"What do you want from him?"

"Well why so defensive? I just… want to see the poor lad… been through so much.." he said slyly.

The advisor entered the room and everyone was on guard, Yakushi secretly asked Azaria to hand him a pistol, and he hid it under his blanket.

"But you can't see him, and you're dizzy… how can you shoot anyway?" whispered Azaria.

"Let me worry about that…." Replied Yakushi.

"Ah my dear boy Yakushi…. How you been?" asked the advisor.

"Well if it ain't the toothpick in the black dress, what do you want? Get straight to the point…" answered Yakushi.

"My my… temper temper… I'm just here to check on you…. And you insult me?"

Yakushi interrupts the advisor and grabbed his coat and brought him closer, pulling out the pistol Azaria gave and pointing it on the advisor's nose.

"Get to the point already…" complained Yakushi. "Unless you want to have a facial surgery right now…"

"Woah woah woah! You're not going to shoot me are you? If you do… I'll die…. You know…"

"Oh jeee, I never would've guessed…. Get to the point and get out of here…" said Yakushi as he threw the advisor backwards.

Advisor Salazar got up and dusted his coat, Yakushi still maintaining his aim at him. Yakushi's eyes was closed but he was still pointing the pistol at him. The advisor tried to take a few steps side wards but Yakushi was still trailing him, maintaining aim to his head.

"Well, I'm just here to say, watch your backs, this village isn't what it used to be anymore. There is a division south east of from here, uphill, used to be a shrine where our priests used to pray and worship. But now, reports say that something happened there." Said the advisor.

"What do you mean.. something?" asked Noah.

"Could be demons, or some supernatural force…. I don't know… a month ago, a dozen priests travelled up there, but only three came back."

"What happened to those three?" asked Cai.

"Ah… word says that they've gone mad, worse part is, one of them has disappeared….."

"And you're telling this to us because? Don't you have guards or investigators? We already have a murder case here…" added Yakushi.

"There's a bonus ….. for the accomplishment of this extra task!"

"How much we talking about?" asked Darren.

"A hundred grand, to each member! Should be more than enough now, there's eight of you after all!.. well then, I bid you all…. Farewell…. And please, try not to be killed…. It'd be such a waste of skill.."

The advisor then exited the room and left the house, the group wasn't really confident about the extra mission, they don't know what they're up against.

"The hell do you think is going on?" asked Norami.

"We've never heard of this case either… even before we left to find Yakushi and the others, no reports at all…" added Samantha.

"This doesn't add up… the advisor mentioned this started a month ago, and since you girls don't know about it, I'm guessing this wasn't made public…. But why tell us now?" added Azaria.

"I'm having a bad feeling about this…. But for now I think Yakushi needs to reach full recovery, the medicine was strong, so he should be fine within twenty four hours." Said Azaria.

"So what's the plan today?" asked Yakushi as he threw the pistol back to Azaria.

"I saw a blacksmith on the way here, I'd like to check it out…" said Noah.

"Oh goodie! I'd like to see that too!" added Darren.

"I can show you two the way, I've got nothing to do anyway…" said Norami.

"Awesome!" said Darren and Noah.

Noah, Norami and Darren, then left the house to visit the blacksmith, Yakushi couldn't move so he was still stuck in bed.

"If it's fine with anyone, I'd like to tour the village a bit… maybe I could scan for flanking spots, or anything, see you guys." Said Azaria as he also left the house.

"Cai, maybe we should… visit… well… our families.." whispered Samantha.

"Yeah, of course… Yakushi, you get well, Samantha and I have something to take care of." Said Cai.

"Catch you later!" added Samantha.

Cai and Samantha then left the house, Jenova had no other plans, so she volunteered to bodyguard Yakushi.

"You're going to what?" said Yakushi.

"Well there's a chance demons might attack, I don't want to take chances here…" said Jenova.

"Heh… well well, I didn't realize you cared!"

"I just.. uhm…"

"Don't worry I'm playing here hehehe… well at least it won't be so lonely then…"

"Hehehe yeah… nice one.. I just wanted to stay home anyway, no mood to go out, nothing to finish."

"I see…. Quite a place you've got here… but, where's your family?"

Jenova then gave a sigh after hearing Yakushi ask about her family, she tried to force a smile and took a seat next to Yakushi.

"Are you okay?" asked Yakushi.

"What? It's… It's.."

Yakushi could already tell by how she reacted, the look in her face, the forced smile, and how she talks.

"It's…. it's alright Jenova…" he said.

"My family….." sniffed Jenova.

Yakushi, despite still closing his eyes, tapped Jenova on her shoulder and said,

"I'm sorry I asked…"

Jenova started to have tears falling off her eyes, but still kept a smile on her face.

"Damned demons…." She said.

"Are the three girls the last of your family? They are cousins of yours right?"

"Actually, only the three of them, I'm just the…. Different one.."

"Oh…. Is it alright if I asked what happened?"

Jenova gave a sigh and agreed to tell Yakushi her past, she was only ten years old, she was doing some target practice out in the woods on her own. Until, her father showed up, his clothes ripped, heavily stained with blood, and carrying a bloody machete.

"Father?" said Jenova. "What's going on?"

"J-Jenova…. Get away!" said her father as he tried to attack her.

Jenova defends herself with the rifle and tries to back out.

"W-what are you doing?"

Jenova's father repeatedly strikes Jenova, until he managed to knock her down. Jenova then had no choice but to point her gun at him.

"Stay away!" she shouted.

Jenova then started to notice, her father's eyes were glowing red, and black aura surrounded him.

"Take the shot Jenova! Shoot me! Please!" her father shouted.

Jenova hesitated a lot, until her father then started to raise his blade, and attempt to impale her. Jenova then shut her eyes, and randomly fired a shot while screaming,

"FATHER!"


	13. Contract 13: Jenova  Part 2

Jenova pulled the trigger at the last minute, her eyes were shut tight, and held her rifle as tightly as she could. After a while, a voice called out to her,

"Jenova….."

She opens her eyes, there right in front of her, was her father, covered in blood. Jenova shot him in the heart.

"Dad… dad… why?..." she cried.

"Jenova…. I'm sorry…. I wasn't strong enough, I…" he said as he coughed out blood. "I couldn't overcome it…"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"A demon…. Took over my body…. Made me kill many people… made me kill your mother… our family… friends…"

"No… NO! It can't be! What's going to happen to me? I'm left all alone here! Father please don't go!"

"I'm sorry Jenova… you have to be strong…. you're ready to face the world despite your age… you'll be fine.."

Jenova then tried to stop crying, giving a faint smile, and her father gave one in return. He held up his hand against her cheeks and said,

"You are the last survivor… Be strong, always…. You're not …. Alone.."

As Jenova's father said his last sentence, he raised his hand up, having one last look at the rising sun, soon, he was deceased. Jenova couldn't stop crying, as she mourned for her whole family, but she gathered all her strength, managed to stop crying, stood up and closed her eyes.

"Rest in peace… father…" she said.

Jenova then walks away, leaving her past, her family and friends behind, trying to look for a new start.

"Well… that's how I ended up here… this place used to be like a summer house for my family, since I'm the last survivor, I got rights to claim it for myself…" said Jenova, wiping the tears off her face.

"Jenova…." Said Yakushi.

"It's alright…. Past is past, we've got to move on you know…"

"….. And here I thought I was the last survivor…."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…."

Yakushi then began to explain to Jenova on him also being the last of his clan, he explained to her about the flash back he experienced the other day back at headquarters, about him as a kid, returning home to find his dead family piled up. He just didn't mention the part where he went berserk.

"I'm… I'm really sorry to hear that…." Said Jenova.

"It's fine… like you said, past is past…" replied Yakushi.

"Just got to keep moving forward…"

"Exactly…. Though… it's a pain really…"

"Well whatever the case, I'm somehow glad that… I'm not the only one who feels this way…"

"Believe it or not Jenova… I know how you feel… the world's a bitch…. Demons should stay in hell…"

"Yeah… " signed Jenova.

Yakushi then opened his eyes, and sat up.

"Hey! You should be lying down!"

"I'm good….. Azaria's medicine works good!" said Yakushi.

"Oh… that's good to hear… but still, maybe you should stay down…"

Yakushi then placed his hand near Jenova's eyes and wiped away her tears.

"It's gonna be alright." He said, smiling at her.

Without warning or such, she hugged Yakushi, and then more tears started to fall from here eyes.

"I thought you stopped?" asked Yakushi. "Hehehe…"

"I don't know…. I also thought …." giggled Jenova, despite crying at the same time.

"Now I can't tell, you happy or sad?"

Jenova continued to hold on to Yakushi, turns out, Yakushi also started to tear up.

"Are you crying?" asked Jenova.

"What the? Crying? Oh God.. no…. yeah… I don't know… a fly went in my eye…" chuckled Yakushi.

"Yeah right! There's no flies in this village.. trust me, you don't even see one at all.."

"… something went in my eye…"

"Hehehe, you're funny for someone who's a demon slayer.."

"Well ain't I just a bag o fun... "

"Hehehe, anyway… since you're feeling better now, you wanna grab breakfast? You haven't eaten ever since you fainted anyway. Come on! I know a good place!"

Jenova grabbed Yakushi's hand and dragged him all the way to a little breakfast café a few blocks down. There they ran into Azaria, having coffee on his own.

"Azaria!" said Yakushi.

"Hey!" waved Azaria. "Yakushi! Jenova!"

"What're you doing here?" asked Jenova.

"Having coffee….."

"… right! Hehehe."

Azaria noticed that both Yakushi and Jenova's eyes and nose were red, it was almost obvious they just cried.

"You guys alright? You look like you just cried… something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, no it's nothing…. Just… well… stuff…" said Jenova.

"Oh well, if you say so, have a seat!"

"Sure… " said Yakushi and Jenova as they took a seat.

"Oh yeah Azaria, thanks for the medicine man… I'm feeling way better now!"

"No problem, you need any medical assistants, you contact me, I've been studying medical for some time."

"That's great!"

The three had some time talk, then Azaria had to take his leave, he wanted to explore more of the village.

"If you'll excuse me… I'll catch you two later." Said Azaria.

"Roger that, thanks for letting us join you." Said Yakushi, shaking Azaria's hand.

"You two have a good one…"

Azaria then walked down the streets, observing the people, the places, the environment. He then looked up in the sky, thought to himself.

"I hope you're alive out there….. I won't stop searching for you… Laren… where are you?.."

Suddenly a villager carrying a heavy crate purposely bumped into him and dropped it.

"Aw shit! Hey you! This is your fault! Watch where you're going!" shouted the villager.

"Hey what? Wait! You clearly saw me! You did that on purpose!" said Azaria.

"Bullshit! Pay up now!"

"No way am I paying for something I didn't break!"

"Guards! Guards!"

"Great…. This day could be the best of my life… weee.." thought Azaria sarcastically.

Suddenly a man carrying a backpack, wearing black jeans, a black sweater, and an old German helmet with goggles wrapped around it, interrupted the villager.

"Now now, let me handle this… here, take this… let's forget this ever happened." He said as he handed the villager some cash.

The villager snatched the cash and ran off, Azaria gave out a sigh and approached the man.

"Hey, thank you for your help, but you didn't have to pay them you know." He said, giving a bow.

"Ah friend," Said the man. "The pleasure is all mine, and it's better to pay him instead, once the guards are in, it's a blood bath."

"I see, you don't look like from around here…"

"Nor do you.."

"Name's Azaria Hawke, mercenary and bodyguard."

"I'm Emile Hidalgo, journalist and mechanical engineer, high class."

"Pleasure to meet you, what brings a man like you to a place like this?"

"I heard about the massacre that occurred here, I'm here to report on it…."

"Well what a coincidence, we're here to put a stop to it, maybe you can report on what's causing all this, I have to pay you back somehow anyway."

"Ah! Excellent! Excellent! Perhaps I can rely on you for protection maybe? You are a bodyguard after all!"

"Wait until tonight then, we will gather at Jenova's house, the biggest one uphill."

"Ah, very well, I shall being preparations right away! I will see you tonight then!"

The two parted ways, and Azaria thought to himself,

"For a photo journalist, and a master engineer, he's pretty young…. Whatever… I still need to contact her….. hope she's alive… aw man… Faye… where are you?"


	14. Contract 14: Field Tactician

The sky was getting dark, and Azaria was expecting Emile to arrive soon. When he explained to the group who he was, Darren was thinking if he could use Emile's skills, probably hire him.

"So when is this Emile arriving?" asked Darren.

"Supposedly soon, he probably went to grab his camera or something." Replied Azaria.

The doorbell then rang.

"Just in time."

The group proceeded to see who it was, Azaria was right, it was Emile, this time with a camera slanged around his neck.

"Excuse me, is a gentleman named Azaria here?" he asked.

"Hey! Emile!" said Azaria.

"Ah! Good evening friend!"

"Oh come in come in…" said Jenova.

"Ah, my thanks!"

Everyone went to the living room and took their seats, Emile then to the group of his purpose for joining the group.

"I hear you are a mechanic." Said Darren.

"Indeed I am." He replied.

"I want to see what you can do one day then, Azaria mentioned you were high class, rare talent!"

"Ah, I'm sure you will see so soon…. Not to rush or anything, but when will we depart for this… hunt?"

"We leave in the morning, originally we should've a few days ago already…" said Cai, looking at Yakushi with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Hey! I was knocked out by some fat ass demon alright?" exclaimed Yakushi.

"Yet you handled the argosax just fine… losing your touch now?" teased Cai.

"…. That's it… time for us to get some shut eye already!"

Everyone laughed at the two of them, then headed to their respective rooms, Jenova gave Emile access to one of the extra rooms, so he had a place to stay instead or returning and making his way back.

The next morning, everyone got up early, the weather was freezing cold and somewhat foggy. They suited and grabbed their weapons, as soon as everyone was ready, they headed out.

"Noah, Azaria and Darren, I think it's best if you three guard Emile." Said Yakushi.

"Oh no worries, I can pretty much take care of myself thank you very much!" said Emile as he pulled out a pair of heavily modified lugers.

"Woah! You've got lugers!" said Noah.

"Heavily modified too!" added Darren.

"Alright let's not drift off, we've got a job to do…. Let's see it through!" said Jenova.

"Roger that!" said the group.

The group travelled up to the scene of the murders, Emile took up his camera and attached it to his right shoulder, recording the whole scene.

"Hey Emile! Do you really have to record now? We're not even at the site yet!" said Noah.

"Ah, but if ever something happens along the way, at least I got to capture the moment." Said Emile.

"…works for me…I guess…"

Turns out Emile predicted right, something did happen along the way, the group ended up in a forest, and the air was much colder. Everyone knew something wasn't right, they drew out their weapons and formed a circle.

"Everyone check your six!" shouted Yakushi.

Suddenly a chilling breeze blew past them, the leaves were flying in the air, and suddenly, arms started coming out of the ground.

"What the hell?" shouted Darren.

"Hell sounds about right!" added Norami.

"Get ready!" said Noah.

Corpse like demons crawled out from the ground, and started walking towards them, as if they were zombies.

"I know these types… they fall under the possession category, demon souls possess corpses and control their bodies." Said Emile.

"You saying they're dead already?" asked Noah.

"In a way yes… here's the bad part… they can't feel pain, and no matter what you do… they will keep coming back for you!"

"Then how the hell do you put these shits down?" complained Samantha.

"Easy! Dismember them!" said Yakushi as he pulled out his katanas and dashed off.

"He's right!" said Emile as he began firing at the limbs of the corpses.

The group targeted the limbs of the corpses, the demons couldn't move at all, just struggle on the floor like a fish out of water. Soon, all the demons were put down, all of them were trying to jump towards the group, but it seemed difficult for them.

"Well this is odd… that was really easy… and yet we're almost at the site…" said Darren.

"Hahaha! The demons look funny! They really are like fish out of water! Just look at them struggle!" said Samantha, poking a demon at the back with her dagger.

"Seems you're a demonologist too?" asked Yakushi.

"I read about demons from time to time, how to deal with them, the works…" said Emile.

"That'd come in handy then, let's move…"

"Aye!"

The group continued to move on, leaving the corpses to struggle for probably eternity. Yakushi though, looked back a few times, scanning the rear, having a feeling that they were being followed.

"Hey Yakushi!" said Jenova.

"Uh… it's nothing…" he replied.

"Well come on! Let's go!"

"Y-Yeah, sure.."


	15. Contract 15: Easy Prey

After hours of travel, the group has finally made it to the site, but they remained hidden on top of trees, like ninjas.

"I'm… sooo… tirred…." Complained Noah.

"We've been hiking only for a few hours… and you're tired already?" asked Cai.

"What? God… you guys are all monsters!"

"Oh shut it and drink some water.." added Emile, throwing him a bottle of water.

Jenova then moved on ahead of the group and tried to look for anything suspicious. The floor was covered with leaves, the fog is clear, air still cold, and there were three stone statues up ahead, no bodies, blood stains, not a trace of murder.

"It's just a peaceful little … well… altar perhaps?" said Jenova.

"It's suspicious if you ask me…" added Norami.

"I suggest a small scout team go ahead, then the rest of us will wait as backup." Said Yakushi.

"Yeah but who will go?" asked Noah.

No one replied, but instead looked at him, Noah already got the idea they were suggesting he'd be the scout. He resisted but ended up falling off the tree and became the scout.

"Aw shit…. Well if I'm going to be the scout, where's the rest of the team?" complained Noah.

"Team? You're a scout already! Go check things out!" said Norami.

"What? But Yakushi! You said we should deploy a scout team! Not unit!"

"…. Bazinga!" teased Yakushi.

"The hell! Yeah, great nice! It's really nice having friends like you all!"

"I know right!"

Noah held up his axe, watching every angle for any surprises, and slowly walked towards the stone statues.

"Emile, I suggest you stay behind me.." said Azaria.

"Aye… thanks.." replied Emile.

Everyone else drew out their weapons and waited for something to pop out. As Noah got closer to the statues, wind started to blow, and it got stronger every step.

"I can do this… I can do this…" thought Noah.

Suddenly an arm came out of the ground and grabbed Noah's foot.

"Gah! I can't do it!" he shouted.

It was another corpse type demon, but this time it's only one, Jenova took aim and blasted off the limbs of the demon.

"Screw you all! I hate this idea!" shouted Noah.

The coast was clear and the rest of the group followed up with Noah, everything was perfectly normal.

"Don't tell me the murders were committed by this little piece of shit!" exclaimed Darren, staring at the dismembered body, struggling.

"This can't be right!" shouted Cai. "The murders, rapes, everything… it all came from here…."

"You think it got bored and left?" asked Azaria.

"But these statues here, look very peculiar…" added Emile.

Emile slowly reached his hand out to touch the statues, but Samantha quickly grabbed his arm before he even did so.

"Don't!" she said. "It could be a trap…."

"Aye… good thinking… thanks.." said Emile.

"Everyone stand back…" said Jenova, loading her rifle.

Jenova took aim at the peculiar statues, held her breath, and fired a round. The bullet knocked the head off the statue, and she fired at the other two as well, decapitating the rest. The statue heads fell to the group, and then sank into the group, the weather became much colder as all light turned to darkness. The silence of the night gave fright to the group as they formed a circle to cover each other's backs. All they could hear was each other's breaths, and could not see anything beyond fifty meters ahead of them.

"It's dark… I can't see anything.." said Norami.

The group was shivering, it was so cold they could see their own frozen breath.

"Damn it…. Why so damn cold…" said Azaria.

Yakushi's eyes started to flash red a few times, but the others didn't notice. After a few flashes, it stopped, as he held his head, feeling a bit dizzy again.

"Ugh…" he complained, shaking his head.

"Hey, you alright?" asked Darren.

"Y-yeah I'm fine… Cold weather must've gotten to my head…."

His eyes then flashed once again, but during that flash, he caught a glimpse of multiple demons coming from below.

"Shit! Everyone! Jump!" he shouted.

"What? Why?" asked Noah.

"Just do it!"

The group then leaped up on to the trees, as scythe blades suddenly slashed out of nowhere. The demons they saw seemed to be able to wearing a while robe, armed with a scythe, also had the ability to teleport. There were multiples of them, teleporting from one place to another, wondering where the group went.

"What the? These are the killers?" said Cai.

"I'm afraid so… look at what's on their necks!" said Jenova.

Some of the demons had monk beads around their necks, and some other stuff that the holy people would use.

"I recognize it, that's Haiten craft!" added Norami.

"Yeah but how do we deal with them? They have the advantage since they can teleport, and it's almost pitch black here." Said Noah.

"Easy… you listen for them…" said Jenova as she took aim, but this time, with her eyes closed.

"What're you…" exclaimed Yakushi.

Before he could finish, Jenova fired a round, and it managed to land a headshot on one of the demons. They saw where the shot came from and gave a loud roar.

"That… you've got to show me how you did that…" continued Yakushi.

"They know we're here! Get ready!" said Azaria.

Cai, Norami, Samantha, Noah and Yakushi dived down to engage in melee combat with the demons, while the rest stay up on the trees and provided range support.

"Aim at targets away from the rest!" shouted Darren. "Avoid friendlies!"

"Roger that!" said Azaria and Emile.

"I hear ya!" added Jenova.

Norami wrapped her blade around a demon, tossed it in the air, and retracted her blade, slicing the demon into little bits, and then it turned to dust upon its death. A demon was about to strike her from the back, she tried to defend, but before the demon struck, Noah got in the way and stabbed its head from the back, he lifted it and leaned backwards, hitting another demon, then dragging the two demons on the floor and swinging it to the air.

"Not bad!" said Norami. "But I would've defended that attack anyway…"

"Aww… is that so… well then, watch this!" said Noah.

He was about to strike another demon in the head, but just before it landed, Azaria shot it in the head, and the body dropped dead.

"HEY! THAT WAS MY KILL!" shouted Noah.

"Oops…. My bad!" said Azaria.

"Yeah… that's really impressive Noah.." added Norami.

"Oh shut it…"

Darren and Yakushi however were somewhat having fun while fighting, they both were competing who had the more stylish kill.

"YAHOO!" shouted Darren.

Darren was break dancing while fighting the demons, he started throwing his legs in the air and controlling himself with his hands on the floor, sweeping all surrounding demons.

"Beat that! Hahaha!" taunted Darren.

"I plan to…" said Yakushi.

A demon was about to slash Yakushi from the back, but Yakushi takes a side step, and trips the demon on the floor. He pulled out his pistols, jumped on its back, and kicked the ground, as if the demon itself was a skateboard. After gaining some speed, he performed multiple spins while blasting every demon he encounters, and once he began to slow down, he performs a one eighty degree turn and kicks it straight into another demon's face. Darren witnesses the stunt and gave a dropped jaw expression.

"Well I think we can consider that stylish to the max, don't you think?" said Yakushi.

"Son of a!" shouted Darren, as he started bashing demons up.

A demon suddenly grappled Yakushi from the back, in the process, he dropped his pistols as it squeezed him harder. Yakushi tried to give it an elbow, but it barely flinched, suddenly a demon appeared right in front of him, about to slice him in half.

"Aw shit…." Said Yakushi.

But just before the strike was given, from up in the trees, Jenova shot its head off, as well as the one holding on to Yakushi. He quickly dived to the ground, grabbed his pistols and blasted every demon surrounding him.

"Whew! That was close! Thanks Jenova!" shouted Yakushi as he winked at her.

"You're welcome! Go get'em!" said Jenova, giving Yakushi a thumbs up.

Cai and Samantha witnessed the scene, and looked towards Jenova.

"What?" said Jenova.

The two of them remained silent, but gave a funny smile, then went back to fighting the demons. Jenova, just sitting on the tree, confused what was that about, thought to herself,

"What's with the two of them? Something funny happened?... Aw man… I missed it…"


	16. Contract 16: Contract Target

The demon numbers were dropping, and soon, the group managed to wipe out the demons with ease. But Azaria and Emile suspected something, it was all too easy.

"This ain't right, what's going on?" asked Azaria.

"What're you talking about? We wiped them out, contract's finished, let's go back and get our payment.." said Darren.

"I agree with Azaria here….. just hold on… Haven't you noticed it was all too easy?" added Emile.

"Now that you mentioned it, they just had numbers only." Said Yakushi.

"What's more, if priests came up here, their bodyguards would have easily dealt with them." Added Samantha.

"Bodyguards?"

"Every priest has a few, demons usually attack priests for some reason."

The place was still dark, but when Darren looked at his watch, something was off.

"Uh… guys…, isn't the sun supposed to shine at around …well…. THIS TIME?" shouted Darren.

The group looked around, but there was barely a shade of light from the sky, Emile and Azaria were right, something is definitely wrong.

"Well I never expected anything to go smooth in a murder site anyway…" said Norami.

The ground started to shake, and then cracked up, the group then backed out of the area, as a familiar looking demon rose from the ground.

"Aw shit… this son of a bitch again?" exclaimed Yakushi.

It was that same demon that Yakushi encountered at the Haiten village, but this time, there was two heads.

"Great… two heads?" exclaimed Darren.

"What this thing grew another head when I was out cold?" shouted Yakushi.

The demon roared and slammed its three arms to the ground, and then pulled out a giant blade on each hand.

"Great! He's got new toys now!" added Jenova.

"Whatever the case, this bitch is going down! DASHIT STYLE!" shouted Cai as she charged towards it.

"Guys, let's back her up!" said Samantha.

The group charged for the demon, they attacked it from all directions, but sadly, none of their attacks seem to be able to cut through its skin.

"What the hell? I can't even land a dent on it!" shouted Noah.

Yakushi repeatedly delivered furies of rapid slashes, but not even a scratch at all. He kept on trying, until suddenly, his dual katanas were broken. He performed a backflip and looked at his blades.

"Shit…" he thought.

"Yakushi!" shouted Jenova.

The demon walked towards Yakushi and laughed at his broken blades, it stood in front of him and started mocking him. Yakushi then threw the broken blades at its two heads, but it just bounced off.

"Well that didn't work out as planned…" said Yakushi, moving his eyeballs left and right.

The demon raised its three blades and attempted an attack, Yakushi then started running around it. Each blade that landed was a close hit. Yakushi dived after the first blade, then did a cartwheel on the second, but before the third one, he tripped over a branch.

"WHAT THE SHIT!" he shouted.

He pulled out his dual pistols and began firing at the third blade while crawling backwards.

"Damn it! Yakushi!" shouted Jenova, blasting as many rounds as she can at its face. "Get out of there!"

"Come on!" said Noah. "Back me up!"

"Aye!" said Emile.

Noah and Emile climbed on its back, Noah stabbed its back, but his axe didn't seem to pierce its skin, instead, it shattered his axe.

"MY AXE!" he shouted.

"Let me try!" said Emile.

Emile pointed his lugers point blank on its back, and fired a round. It didn't pierce it either, but instead it ricocheted and hit Noah's ass.

"UGH! EMILE! WHAT THE HELL!" shouted Noah, holding on to his butt.

"IT…IT…IT WAS A RICOCHET!" exclaimed Emile.

"DUDE! YOU SHOT MY ASS!"

"SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY! THAT WAS A RICOCHET!"

The demon tried to shake the two of them off, but they held on to its back as long as they could.

"Hurry!" shouted Emile. "While it's distracted! Get'em!"

Cai, Norami and Samantha figured the skin would be too hard for their weapons, so they decided to go for areas that has no skin.

"Its eyes!" shouted Samantha. "Go for the eyes!"

"Let me help!" said Azaria.

Azaria took aim and opened fire on the eyes, but he couldn't get a clear shot, he jumped from tree to tree firing at other areas to distract it so that the girls would be able to get a chance to get the eyes.

Cai, Norami and Samantha lunged into the air and attempted a strike coming down to the eyes. But before they could even reach it, it gave an intense roar that blew everyone backwards. Noah and Emile were also sent flying, but the two clashed into a tree and were out cold.

"NOAH! EMILE!" shouted Darren.

Just as Darren looked back at the demon, its arm was already about to strike him. He couldn't avoid or block it, Darren ended up getting hit and then unconscious.

"Damn it! It took three of us out already!" shouted Yakushi. "Azaria! Norami! Go help the downed ones!"

"Roger!" shouted the two.

Yakushi reloaded and regrouped with Cai, Samantha and Jenova.

"I don't know what's up but its skin is really thick, so we can't get its weak spot open!" said Jenova.

"Weak spot?" asked Yakushi.

"Its heart! That's how we killed the one back at the village… Oh wait, you were knocked out… sorry."

"Yeah but like Jenova said, we can't get its skin open at all… there must be another way!" added Cai.

"Guess we've got no choice then… we'd mind as well use Haiten arts." Said Samantha.

"Haiten arts?" asked Yakushi.

"Every warrior from Haiten has to learn these, but we're only allowed to use them in fights like these…." Said Cai.

Cai lunged her blades into the ground, and used her fingers to draw a patterned circle around it. It lighted up and her blades started to glow, she pulled it out of the ground, and the blades were sparking with electric bolts.

Samantha performed a similar art, but instead she threw her blades in the air and performed a number of hand signs really quickly. She raised her hands up as the her daggers soared through the sky and landed in her palms. The blades had taken a bigger shape, bigger and silver in colour too.

"What is that?" shouted Azaria.

From behind Azaria, there was a flash of light, he turned around to see that Norami's whip had also changed form, it became a metallic python.

"It's the Haiten arts! We use it to enhance our strengths and skills in tough battles." Said Norami. "Sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to deal with the downed ones on your own, I've got to back up the girls."

"Understood, I can handle this… Go!"

Yakushi noticed Jenova was the only one who didn't perform a Haiten art, but he saw in her eyes that she wanted to learn such a skill, and she gave a sigh, but notices Yakushi looking at her.

"Uhm.. what is it?" she asked.

"Huh… uh…uh… N-nothing… Come on, let's …b-back them up!" said Yakushi, looking away.

"Hehe are you nervous?"

"What? Me? Nervous? No way!"

"Get ready then! Here it comes!"

The demon gave another loud roar, but everyone stood their ground, and then Norami, Cai and Samantha began their attack, while Jenova, Yakushi and Azaria provided fire support. Cai targeted its arms and began her attack, she parries the giant blade and manages to land a hit on its skin. This time, she managed to cut it.

"Alright!" she shouted.

"Way to go!" Now finish it off!" cheered Jenova.

Samantha and Norami tried to target the blades the demon wielded so that it would be less of a threat to them. Norami manages to grab hold of one of its arms while Samantha attempts to cut it off, but she gets interrupted by another one of the demon's hands. She parries and falls back as it cuts its own arm off by accident, it roared in pain, as it knocks itself on one of the heads.

"The hell… it cut its own arm off… how stupid…" thought Samantha.

While it was roaring in pain, Jenova managed to take aim at one of the eyes, and then fired a round. The bullet successful pierces the eye and that same head suddenly stopped moving.

"Oh hell Jenova I think you killed half of it!" said Cai. "I think you got its brain!"

"Time for the next one then!" said Jenova.

While the demon was whining in pain, Yakushi took advantage and jumped up on its living head, and pulled its eye lashes up and curb stomped its eye, one time didn't work out, so he did so repeatedly while it struggled to get him off. Yakushi held on as long as he could as he signalled the girls to take out its arms.

"Come on! Let's go!" said Cai.

Norami and Samantha dashed off, but just before Cai followed up, her blades started to flash with a dimmer light. She dropped to one knee, shook her head and got up again, then followed up with the others as she thought,

"Damn… I'm about to reach my limit… Got to …ugh… kill this thing quick….."


	17. Contract 17: Awakening

Norami and Samantha were experiencing the same thing, their Haiten arts wasn't lasting any longer.

"Of all times why now…" complained Norami.

"What's going on?" asked Yakushi.

"Haiten arts may be a powerful technique, but it takes up a lot of our energy as we use it…." Said Cai.

Norami, Samantha and Cai did not waste time, they charged towards the demon and tried to rip it to shreds before their powers warn out. They did the best they could, but the demon managed to parry most of the attacks. It was starting to increase speed and power, and it was breathing out some green coloured gas.

"The hell? What's going on?" said Azaria.

Azaria tried to cover his mouth from the gas, but unfortunately, he still managed to breathe some in. He started to feel dizzy and ended up unconscious.

"What the? Azaria!" shouted Yakushi.

The three girls attacking also inhaled the gas, they decided to retreat and fall back. The remainder of the group backed away to where the gas couldn't reach.

"It's a good thing the gas is short ranged…" said Jenova.

Cai, Samantha and Norami suddenly dropped unconscious.

"What the? No way! Don't drop out now!" said Jenova. "Wake up!"

"What's going on? Did they inhale the gas?" asked Yakushi.

"No… they couldn't go on any longer with the Haiten arts!"

Yakushi looked back at the demon, but it disappeared, without a trace.

"What the? Where the hell did it go?" he said.

Suddenly, Yakushi and Jenova felt a vibration on the ground, they tried to keep their balance but suddenly the demon struck from down below, it tried to grab them, but Yakushi managed to dodge the grapple. Unfortunately it managed to get a hold of Jenova, she was now helpless, its gigantic arms prevented her from even moving a single inch.

"Jenova!" shouted Yakushi.

"Ugh! Help!" screamed Jenova.

The demon started releasing its gas once again, Jenova couldn't block the gas and ended up unconscious. Sadly Yakushi also ended up inhaling it, his vision started to get blur and he also started feeling very dizzy.

"Aww shit…. Die already you piece of shit…." Said Yakushi as he tried to keep his balance.

He tried to pull out both his pistols, but he dropped on one knee as well as a pistol. He tried to get up and walk towards the demon, shooting his pistol.

"Let…. Her… go…." He said.

The demon just stood there, still holding on to Jenova, and watching Yakushi slowly walk towards it, shooting his pistol, despite having no effect at all. The demon gave a mocking laugh and started tossing Jenova around the air and catching her with its other hands, as if it was juggling her. The demons wounds were also starting to heal, its scars and wounds started to close up, and soon, it was back to full health in almost an instant. Yakushi kept on firing until he was out of bullets, but he still continued to walk towards it, pulling the trigger, making clicking sounds on his gun.

Yakushi started to feel weak and dropped on his knees, he couldn't even raise his arms anymore, his body felt like a vegetable, but he was still conscious.

"Let… her… go…." Murmured Yakushi.

The demon then prepared to finish off Yakushi, it raised its blade up high and started to drop down. Just before the blade hits Yakushi, he shouted.

"LET HER GO!"

There was a cloud of smoke upon impact of the blade, the demon tried to see Yakushi's corpse through the smoke, but apparently, two red dots suddenly flashed up. The demon was surprised as it tried to pull its blade out from Yakushi, but it couldn't do so. When the smoke cleared up, the demon was surprised on what it saw. Yakushi wasn't dead, but he was holding the demon's blade with one hand. Yakushi's hand was bleeding, but he managed to block the attack, he raised his head and looked at the eyes of the demon. Yakushi's eyes were glowing red, and there was a black aura coming out of him.

"You want to play?" said Yakushi, in a demonic voice. "Let's play…."

Yakushi pulled the blade away from the demon, and threw it back at its arm, despite the size of the blade, Yakushi had no problem sending it soaring through the sky. The blade sliced off one of the demons arm with ease, it roared in pain as it started to crush Jenova.

"Let… her… go..." he said again. "LET HER GO!"

A black katana in its sheath, sparkling with red lightning suddenly appeared on his hand. He held it by his waist and waited for the demon to attack. The moment the demon does so, Yakushi slides up the katana from its sheath with his thumb, and suddenly appears behind the demon with his sword drawn out. The demon was immobilized as Yakushi slowly slides his sword back into his sheath, just when it was close to being fully sheathed, he shoved it in, making a click sound. The demon's legs and arms were slowly sliding out of place, and then, next thing it knew, it was dismembered.

Jenova was still unconscious as her body was already in mid-air, and her head was facing the ground. Yakushi notices and performed an air dash, he kicked the air and just before Jenova's head hit the ground, he caught her and let her down near a tree. The demon was still roaring in pain as it started to have veins coming out of its dismembered parts and attempts to regenerate.

"You … will…die…." Said Yakushi.

Yakushi's eyes flashed brighter as his blade disappears into thin air, he forcefully extends his hand towards the demon, and an aura resembling a giant devil's hand appeared, following the exact movements of his hand. He grabs the demon, raises it up, still the demon roaring in pain, trying to release its gas. But fortunately, the gas barely affected Yakushi.

"Now… you…. DIE!" shouted Yakushi.

Yakushi clenches his fist, and so does the aura of the devil's arm. Yakushi literally crushes the demon's bones and body. He then threw his hand down, and again, so did the giant devil hand, it came down full force, and Yakushi started pummelling the demon on the ground. Soon enough, the demon was beaten to a pulp, literally, and it started to melt into the ground, signifying its death. The aura then disappears as Yakushi's eyes flashed a few times, and then, reverted back to normal.

"Ugh…. Shit… what the hell happened?... demon….. oh no! Jenova!" he said.

Yakushi looked around and saw Jenova lying down by a tree, he approached her and checked to see if she was alive. Apparently she still lives, he looks around, and saw his comrades, still down and unconscious.

"Hey Jenova… wake up!... come on! Wake up!" said Yakushi, tapping her face.

Suddenly, Yakushi had a burning pain on his chest, and his heart was beating at an abnormal rate. It was so fast it was causing so much pain in his chest.

"ARGH!" he shouted. "What the shit! What's happening to me?"

More pain suddenly starts to come into his head, as if a drill was being pierced in his head. Yakushi grabbed his head and fell to the ground, rolling around in pain. Soon after, he gave up, and could barely move, so happens though, he was lying next to Jenova. The pain was still there, and then, after a brief moment, his eyebrows felt heavy, and ended up unconscious.


	18. Contract 18: Return

The demon was defeated, and the murder case was solved, the group woke up back in Jenova's house. Yakushi, Cai, Norami, Jenova, and Samantha were resting while the others managed to regain full recovery due to lesser injuries and states.

"Damn, I wonder what happened…" asked Azaria.

"We HAD to get ourselves knocked out…." Said Noah. "And I can't sit down for a while! Thanks to you Emile! You shot my ass!"

"Aye aye I get you! I'll see to it I'll make it up to you, right now we have other matters to worry about…" said Emile.

"According to the medical records, Cai, Norami and Samantha don't really have injuries, somewhat similar to hyperventilation, but… different." Said Azaria.

"They went past their limits using the Haiten arts, takes a lot from your body, if misused, could make you a vegetable, these girls are lucky…"

"Power has its price I guess…."

"Indeed..."

"Jenova's arms were injured bad, reports say the demon grabbed her and tried to crush her. Damn she won't be able to fight for a while."

"Yeah, but what happened to Yakushi? How'd his heart rates, blood pressure and such go off charts?" asked Noah.

"I… I have no idea… but that's to be answered another time, for now we must pray for their recovery and good health." Added Emile.

After a few hours, the four girls woke up, they were surprised at where they were. They noticed Emile, Azaria and Noah and started asking questions on what happened. Sadly no one knew how it ended, but they just got reports that it was a success.

"No shit… we defeated it?" asked Norami.

"Yeah, Darren went off to collect the reward and settle some accounts, no idea what though." Said Noah.

"I see…."

"How did we end up here?" asked Cai.

"Lucky for us actually…. After the demon was defeated, I gathered the last ounces of my strength to launch a flare… yes, I do pack one all the time just in case." Said Emile. "I'm sure you get what happens after the flare."

"Rescue…" said Samantha.

"Exactly… none of us were able to move… Our injuries or state was less fatal so, that's why you see us out of the bed already anyway." Added Azaria.

Jenova started to worry, she recalled what happened before she was out cold. She remembered that she was grabbed by the demon and Yakushi was the last man standing on the field.

"Yakushi managed to get me out of there? Let alone defeat it?" she thought.

Jenova looked her arms, both of them, in an arm sling as well as a cast. She sighed, worrying that she won't be able to fight for quite a while. But she was also wondering what happened after they were knocked out, and what managed to get Yakushi's vitals off the charts.

Cai notices Jenova taking a few glimpses at Yakushi, and gave a smile.

"Well…. Seems someone is waiting for Yakushi to wake up…. Hehehe" teased Cai.

"Huh? Who?" asked Jenova, looking away from Yakushi.

"Oh come on Jenova! We saw you looking at him…" added Norami.

"Woah! Yakushi and Jenova? Hahaha nice one!" said Azaria.

"huh? I… I don't know what you're talking about!" replied Jenova.

Suddenly, the door opened, and a man in a black cloak entered, it was advisor Salazar, along with Darren.

"Darren….. why're you with him?" asked Noah.

"Uh… I had to collect our payment? Duh!" replied Darren.

"… I knew that…"

"Excellent work my friends! Killed two birds with one stone too! Solved the murder case, as well as the extra disappearing priests quest… I….expected nothing less…" said Salazar, giving a sly smile.

Everyone in the room gave Salazar a hostile look, he smirked and noticed Yakushi out cold.

"What's this? The legendary lone mercenary is out cold?" he said as he approached him.

"You keep away from him!" shouted Jenova.

"Oh…. Defensive are we?"

"Oh God… did I just say that?" thought Jenova, blushing a bit.

"Well now… you'd better learn to show your elders some respect young lady… because I can get mad…really mad!"

Advisor Salazar slowly approached Jenova and slowly pulled out a knife, but he suddenly felt twin barrels at his back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" said a familiar voice.

"What in the…" said Salazar.

Before he could finish, he heard the sound of a gun being loaded, he turned around and saw Yakushi pointing a sawn off shotgun at him.

"Step away from Jenova." Said Yakushi.

"Yakushi…" thought Jenova.

Salazar then made his way to the door slowly, keeping his hands raised up.

"Alright, alright! I'll leave you all be… note though! In five days! Go to the temple at dawn! The elder would be speaking to you all!"

With that, the advisor dashed out of the room, and Yakushi just dropped his gun on the bed. He leaned back and gave a sigh, he noticed everyone else staring at him.

"What?... He's annoying!" said Yakushi, pointing his thumb backwards.

"You …" said Cai. "…are…. DASHIT! HAHAHA! NICE TIMING TO WAKE UP!"

"Hahaha! Yeah! You should've seen the look on his face, so surprised you had him gunpoint!" added Azaria.

"The best part is… you managed to save Jenova eh? Haha! Eh? Eh?" teased Noah, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh shut up!" said Yakushi, hitting Noah on the head.

"Oh for the love of! Why's everyone always hitting my head?" exclaimed Noah.

"….. cuz it's funny!" said the group.

"Yeah.. nice… you're all great friends…"

"Yakushi…. What happened to you anyway?" asked Samantha. "You really defeated the demon?"

"Y-yeah… I guess so…. But … I can't remember how… or what happened…" said Yakushi, holding his head.

"Hmm… we should all ask these questions another time, right now not everyone's in good shape yet…" said Emile. "For now get some rest…"

"I'm game with that!" said Norami.

Yakushi suddenly recalled that he last saw Jenova being in the hands of the demon.

"Oh my God! Is Jenova ok?" gasped Yakushi.

But the moment he looked to his right, he saw Jenova, just lying there on bed with injured arms.

"Aw man… are you alright?" he asked.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine… but I can't shoot anything in the meantime…" she sighed.

"Aw man… I'm sorry… I should've grabbed you and retreated… but I let you get taken in by that demon…"

"Hehehe… it's fine… we're all here now, right? It's over… it's cool with me."

Cai, Norami and Samantha were trying to hold their breath and smiles, and Noah was giving a maniac look, but Azaria, Emile and Darren, at the same time knocked his head. Yakushi then decided to lay back and stare at the ceiling, and thought,

"What happened out there…. What was that sword… that power…."


	19. Contract 19: Bad Blood

"So for now, we've got a vacation before we meet the elder." Said Noah. "What're we going to do before then? "

"Hell if I know, some of us have to stay and rest anyway." Said Azaria.

But those in bed managed to stand and suit up, they were already feeling better.

"What the? Never mind…"

"How the hell did you all recover so fast?" asked Noah.

"They were given some herbal medicine, I heard the herb used was rare, but powerful." Said Darren. "We should all be so luck…."

"Yeah, you're right…" said Norami.

Jenova just smiled for a while and looked at her arms, thinking she wasn't really lucky enough with her hands in casts and slings.

"I guess I should be lucky I can still go around let alone stand up." She thought.

"I'm sure you'll be back to shooting in no time." Said Yakushi.

"Huh? Uh… yeah, hehehe thanks."

Yakushi tapped Jenova on the shoulder and gathered his guns and coat, but he noticed his swords were missing.

"Uh… has anyone seen my katanas?" he asked.

"uh… sorry to say man…" said Darren. "But they're lost…"

"oh…. TIME TO BUY A NEW PAIR THEN!"

"AGAIN?"

"Then again, I'll just stick to my old pair of daggers…. Anyway I need to go out and get some air….."

With that, Yakushi grabbed his long coat and took a stroll around the village. The people were some what much happier and out going since the demon attacks have stopped. The guards started to show their respect for the group now, as well as the townsfolk.

"Well I guess this is a good change of mood in town.." thought Yakushi.

Yakushi started thinking back what has happened to him now a days, about that sword that suddenly appeared, and his eyes flashing read.

"Deep in your thoughts friend? Said a female villager, wearing Indian like robes and a turban.

Yakushi kept silent and looked at the lady, she may be part of the village but the way she was dressed, as if she was a fortune teller.

"Ah you thinking of why I'm wearing like this yes? That I'm possibly a …fortune teller?"

"….. H-how'd you know….." said Yakushi.

"I am a fortune teller after all… I can see what's in your mind… everyone's mind, I can read it all…. Like a book…. Come, come…."

"I'm not paying for having my future told to me."

"Oh but there is no price for this one…. You did us all a favour by wiping out those demons, please… it is the least I could do."

Yakushi gave a sigh and proceeded into the tent of the mysterious lady, inside was just like a fortune teller's tent, a table with chairs, and a crystal ball set on the middle.

"Now…. All I need you to do….. is clear your mind, and we'll begin…" said the lady.

"I've got a feeling someone here has lost it… and it's not me…" thought Yakushi, rolling his eyes.

The woman started chanting in some weird tone, Yakushi just played along, cleared his mind a bit, but was also conscious that others outside might hear all the commotion. The chanting got louder and louder, and for some reason, Yakushi was feeling nervous, and was having chills.

The crystal ball then started to light up, and there was an image of a swirling portal, the lady then stopped chanting and slammed her hands on the table, with her head down. It was silent, even outside noises were suppressed.

"Uhm….. Ms?" said Yakushi as he tapped the lady's hand.

On the first touch, she suddenly popped out and looked up in the air, giving a shout, then followed by a high pitched scream. She finally stopped and looked at Yakushi.

"Oh shit!" gasped Yakushi.

The lady's eyes were completely white, as if she was blind, and nerves on her head were seen very clearly. Yakushi tried to pull out his pistols, but the lady suddenly grabbed his hands and said.

"Oh…. That won't be necessary…. The spirits are now with me…."

Yakushi struggled a bit and the lady finally released her hand. Her movement was really twitchy, as if she was a zombie, and her voice had a lower pitch.

"What the hell is this?" asked Yakushi.

The lady ignored Yakushi and looked into the crystal ball.

"You…. You are the last survivor of your own clan, the Yasundais…. You go by the name of Yakushi Sarade Yasundai isn't it?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"You were enraged, killed every demon you encountered….. ever since you were just a little boy….. until now, you carry with you, a rage within… No, it's more than just a rage now…"

"The hell are you talking about?"

"You've been getting dizzy more often, haven't you? And you forget how you escaped certain death….."

"Ugh…"

"Yakushi Sarade Yasundai….. you have a war within yourself… a war between two souls! Yes! You have another soul inside of you!"

"What? Are you saying I'm possessed?"

"No Yasundai… Not Possessed! AWAKENED!"

"WHAT?"

"You are… a rare breed! Half human….. and half… Demon…."

"That's Bullshit!" shouted Yakushi as he stood up. "I'm out of here… Thanks for the freak show lady…."

The lady hopped in front of Yakushi, trying to explain everything to him of being a rare breed.

"Out of my way!" he shouted.

"You are half demon! No! Half devil! You have the blood of a devil running in your veins!"

Yakushi forcefully pushed the lady aside and exited the tent, but the lady continued shouting to Yakushi, saying he's a half devil. He continued walking, ignoring all her comments. Until when the lady got silent, he turned around. He saw the lady giving a freaky smile, and slowly closing the curtains to her tent.

"God what a freak….." said Yakushi as he shook his head.


	20. Contract 20: Keepin Close

Days have passed, and soon, the group proceeded to the temple, and had a debrief with the elder.

"You say that this demon has two heads and skin as thick as steel that normal weapons wouldn't affect it?" asked the elder.

"Y-yes elder…" said Norami.

"And you used Haiten arts to kill the demon?"

"Yes…"

"YOU FOOLS!" shouted the elder.

The girls fell backwards as the elder raised his voice.

"The hell?" said Noah.

The elder stood up from his throne and walked towards the girls, saying,

"You used the village Haiten arts? You all know very well that is sacred and not to be used!"

"B-but!" panicked Samantha.

"SILENCE! YOU USED THE ARTS IN FRONT OF STRANGERS! THAT FACES SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!" said the elder as he summoned a fireball on his hand.

The girls tried to crawl backwards as the elder approached them, about to strike with the fireball. Yakushi suddenly intercepts, he grabbed the elder's hand as the fireball faded, spun him around, and kicked him to the ground and drew out his pistol, aiming for the elder's head.

"HOW DARE YOU!" shouted one of the guards.

"If you're smart, I'd stay where you are… otherwise your elder here will be breathing through a new hole." Said Yakushi.

"How absurd! You'd better have a good reason to intercept the elder!" said Salazar.

"If they hadn't used their Haiten arts, we're all as good as dead, and the murders will never stop. What choice did we have?"

"That's right! No way our weapons could've landed a scratch on that demon! It was our last resort!" added Noah.

"He's right! This demon seems like a new breed! I cannot find any records of such a demon!" added Emile.

The elder got up, he gave Yakushi a very angry look and he was already growling inside his head.

"Hey… Darren, Azaria, and Cai…" said Yakushi.

"What is it?" replied the three.

"I need you all to get the hell out of here… this isn't right… I can feel it… grab your stuff, everything, and get out via chopper…"

"But.." said Darren.

"Just do it….. go!"

The three helped the others and made their way.

"Wait! Jenova!" said Yakushi.

"What is it?" asked Jenova.

Yakushi then threw her his car keys.

"I'm sure you know how to drive… come pick me up once everything is done."

"Yakushi…"

"Go on… tell the others I'll explain everything later, right now we need to get out of here…"

"I… I understand… See you by the main gate…"

"Roger that…"

The guards tried to stop them from leaving, but Yakushi pulled out his second pistol and killed them. Samantha though suddenly turned around and hopped behind Yakushi and pulled out her daggers.

"Samantha!" said Yakushi.

"I don't know what it is, but you'll need back up here!" said Samantha.

"Hold on…"

"Don't argue… too late now…" interrupted Samantha.

The guards surrounded the two as the rest made their way back to Jenova's house. Yakushi and Samantha were greatly outnumbered.

"You all are corrupted aren't you?" said Yakushi.

"Corrupted is such a small word these days…" said Salazar. "We'd prefer if we were called…"

"I don't give a damn what you all are! You're all mad! That's that!" shouted Samantha.

"Temper temper… learn to control that mouth of yours…." Said the elder.

"You're right….." said Yakushi. "Maybe I'll let my buddies handle the talking for me now."

Yakushi pointed both his pistols towards the elder and Salazar, Samantha then began to attack the guards.

"Time to rock!" shouted Samantha.

Samantha took advantage of her speed and took out many guards simultaneously with ease. But it didn't stay that way for long, they were at the temple so most of the guards were elite. They casted Haiten arts at Samantha, slowing her down gradually. Yakushi however interrupts the spell by adding suppressive fire towards the elites with one gun, and the other concentrated at the Elder.

"Two-some time! Alright!" shouted Yakushi.

"Good timing! Thought they got me for sure!" said Samantha.

The elder than raised his hand in the air, and suddenly all the guards disappeared. He and Salazar approached Yakushi and Samantha, with fire on their hands.

"At least they know how to fight fair…" said Yakushi.

"Yeah but they know arts!" said Samantha.

"What're they gonna do? Draw me with a beard?"

"NO NOT THAT ART!"

"Relax… I'm playing…"

Samantha then started to activate her Haiten arts, her weapons started to change and glow.

"Let's play then…" said Salazar.

Salazar unleashed a fury of fire balls at Samantha while she knocked it all away. The elder did the same thing to Yakushi, but he remained on the spot and tilted his body side-wards, avoiding the attack. He returned fire but the elder just drove the bullets away with his palm.

Yakushi soon ran out of ammo, and had to reload, but the elder interrupted him be launching another fire ball. Yakushi avoids by leaning backwards, and while doing so, he through a pair of pistol clips in the air. He fell backwards until the fireball was gone, then kicked the air to get up. He ejected the empty clips from his pistol, spun it upside down, and the clips that were in mid-air fell into the pistol nicely. The barrel pushed itself forward and Yakushi began his attack run.

Samantha unleashed a flurry of repeating strikes, but Salazar's black cloak is giving her a hard time spotting his weakness or body. Salazar tried to unleash Haiten arts on her, but she performs a backflip and avoided the attack. Salazar then started charging up another fireball, but Samantha quickly throws her dagger towards his torso. Salazar tried to dodge it, but he didn't manage to. Surprisingly, the dagger was supposed to impale him, but it just went right through him, the dagger wasn't designed to penetrate and there was no sign of it slowing down even if it hit.

"What the hell?" gasped Samantha.

"Oh Hell sounds about right girl!" said Salazar.

Salazar's black cloak turned into a black cloud, with his head floating , Samantha was freaked out from the sight, she dropped her daggers and fell backwards, trying to crawl away from him.

"Samantha!" shouted Yakushi.

The guards around the area started to transform as well, their hair fell off, skin started to mutate, and soon, they were all demons with large talons.

"What do you know…. More demons…" said Yakushi.


	21. Contract 21: Turned Tables

"Samantha! Hey!" shouted Yakushi.

Samantha was frightened by Salazar, she crawled backwards while he slowly walked towards her. From behind, demons were about to strike, but Yakushi shot them off, but sadly he was open to the elder. With haste, the elder drew his sword and attempted to slice Yakushi, Yakushi attempts to parry with his pistols, but the elder's blade sliced through the barrels clean.

"What the….." said Yakushi.

The elder followed an upward slash, Yakushi tried to flee but the blade managed to cut his body. There was a huge rip on Yakushi's body, he was lucky, if he was any closer, he would've been in half already.

"Shit… that hurts…. Too close for comfort!" complained Yakushi. "Great… unarmed too…"

Yakushi looked around for something he could use as a weapon, until he spotted the daggers Samantha dropped. He sprinted for the daggers and dodged an incoming attack from a demon guard. He slid and grabbed Samantha's daggers, stabbed the floor and perform an all angle sweeping kick.

"Samantha! Hey! Get up!" shouted Yakushi, grabbing her arm.

Samantha couldn't move much, she was too frightened all she could do was shiver. The demons were slowly closing in on them, until they heard the sound of a car horn. It was Jenova in Yakushi's car, along with Azaria at the back shooting off demons.

"Let's go! Come on!" shouted Jenova.

Samantha still couldn't move over the fright, Yakushi ended up carrying her and made a run for the car.

"COVER ME!" shouted Yakushi.

"Come on! Hurry up!" shouted Azaria.

Yakushi sprinted as fast as he could, the demons barely getting near him. He got Samantha and himself in and Azaria handed him a rifle.

"Let's get out of here!" shouted Yakushi.

Jenova hit full throttle as they sped out of there while Yakushi and Azaria blasted any incoming demon. Soon enough, they were on the road back to the old headquarters.

"The hell happened in there man?" said Azaria.

"Yeah! How did demons end up in the temple?" asked Jenova.

"They weren't human to begin with…. I had a bad feeling but I wasn't sure…." Said Yakushi.

"What? You knew about this?" radioed Darren.

"I said I wasn't sure! They did look and acted like humans….."

"Let's focus on that later, I don't know what's up with Samantha…." Said Azaria.

"OMG! Samantha? What's wrong?" radioed Cai.

"I don't know… mid battle she all of a sudden became so frightened…. She fought Salazar, but I don't know what he did to her….. Look, for now we gotta keep moving, the village is now hostile towards us, and we've got to gear up before more trouble comes." Said Yakushi.

Yakushi tried to control the pain of his wound, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. Jenova noticed him bleeding out and panicked a bit.

"Yakushi!" she shouted.

"What's going on?" said Azaria. "Holy hell! We need to get you back ASAP!"

"What's going on down there?" radioed Noah.

"Yakushi's taken a hit! We need to get back ASAP!"

"Damn it! We'll fly on ahead!" said Darren. "We'll get the med bay ready for the two of them!"

"Roger that! See you there!"

After a few hours, Yakushi was feeling cold, he was still bleeding, and Samantha was slowly regaining her old self again.

"God man! What'd you get hit by?" asked Azaria.

"You fought the elder didn't you?" asked Jenova.

"Ugh…" coughed Yakushi. "Yeah, why?"

"His blade isn't an ordinary blade… our villagers call it the weeping blade, one hit, no matter how small the wound, you'll bleed to death unless given special treatment….. DAMN IT! He used those in executions! Gives them a slow death! Really Cruel you know!" said Jenova, hitting the steering wheel.

"Shit….."

The radio suddenly had a lot of static, Jenova picked it up and replied.

"Darren? Hello? Guys I'm getting a lot of static!"

"….don't…..quarters…move….. gah!" said Darren.

"Darren?"

"We need to get there ASAP!" added Azaria.

Soon enough, they made it back to the headquarters, Azaria carried Samantha while Jenova shouldered Yakushi. They took the elevator down, Jenova and Azaria had their guns ready, locked and loaded. When they got down, a gas grenade just flew in, and all four of them were unconscious.

Military soldiers occupied the headquarters and captured the group. They placed them in a holding container and loaded them on a truck. The truck headed for a military base, but on the way, it hit a bump and 2 of the containers fell off. No one noticed a thing and continued moving on. Inside the containers were Cai and Jenova, they shook their head and tried to stand up.

"Jenova!" said Cai.

"Ugh… my head…" said Jenova.

"What's going on? Who're those guys?"

"I can't really tell for sure, but the others are in that truck! We've got to follow it!"

Cai and Jenova tried to chase down the truck, but they felt weak as they just woke up. But with Jenova's sharp eyes, she spotted a symbol on the truck.

"Shit….." panted Jenova. "It's military…"

"Military? What do they want?" shouted Cai. "Ugh….. I'm not feeling too good….."

"We're in no condition to fight or anything, and we can't go back to the village nor the HQ…."

"What now?"

"I don't know… but I already have an idea where the others are being taken to…"

"Hmm… I've got an idea….. come on Jenova!"

The truck settled in a military base, guarded by a whole army. The containers were transferred to a lab. A man wearing a suit entered the lab, he had a walking stick with the symbol of an angel's wings on top of it. He was also escorted by a military general, who wore camouflaged uniform and has a huge scar on his face, from his nose down to his neck. armed with dual spas-12 shotguns.

"Excellent work General….." said the man in the suit. "So which one is the devil boy?"

"We're not really sure, my spies say that no devil form has released…. Although, one of them has showed signs." Said the General.

"Signs?"

"He has been acting weird, his power levels go off the charts sometimes, but it's probably equipment problems."

"Good enough... dispose the rest, keep that one….."

"But sir…"

"I already know who it is…"

"I understand…. Get the rest out! Leave the one in the black coat!"

"This is going to be interesting…."


	22. Contract 22: Digging in

After a long while, Yakushi woke up, but he noticed he was strapped inside a container. He tried to break free of the straps, but the container suddenly opened.

"Well well, look who the d-d-d-d-d-devil it is, hahaha!" said a man in a lab gown, wearing a pair of goggles.

"Easy now…." Said a man in a suit.

"Who the hell are you?" said Yakushi.

"Now now…. That's not how you greet someone you've just met…"

Yakushi looked around, he was in some sort of lab. He remembered he had a bad wound, when he looked at his body, there was no scar at all.

"We t-t-t-t-took the liberty of fixing you up….." said the man in a lab gown.

"My name is Deacon, and this is professor Pendleton." Said the man in the suit.

"What is this?... a frickin…" said Yakushi.

Just before he could finish, Pendleton hit a button and a door opened below Yakushi, his straps released, fell in and slid to another room.

"Ugh! What the hell…" said Yakushi, standing up.

Yakushi looked around, he noticed that he was in some sort of dome. A window opened up, he saw Deacon and Pendleton standing by, watching him as if he was some sort of animal.

"What do you want?" shouted Yakushi.

Pendleton pressed another button, and in the middle of the dome, an ordinary blade popped out. And on the surrounding area, doors opened up.

"I'd grab the sword if I were you…" said Deacon.

"What If I don't?" asked Yakushi.

Demons that looked like dogs started to pounce out of the doors. Yakushi quickly grabbed the sword and sliced one in half.

"Excellent!" said Pendleton, as he grabbed a folder and started writing some stuff down.

"What the hell? You keep demon dogs here?" shouted Yakushi.

Another demon dog attacked Yakushi, but he countered by shoving the whole blade inside its mouth and kicked it away. He then threw his sword towards the window, but it merely bounced off.

"There is no escaping here my f-f-f-f-f-friend!" said Pendleton.

"The hell… Not even a dent!" mumbled Yakushi.

Yakushi continued his massacre of the demon dogs, but every dog he kills, two more take its place. A few hours have passed, and the demons were getting bigger.

"This… is crazy…" panted Yakushi.

"If you want it to stop, you could at least give us your name…" said Deacon.

"Screw you!"

Pendleton then pressed a button on a nearby console, the floor suddenly discharged the whole room with high voltage.

"ARGH!" shouted Yakushi.

The demons caught were dead, but Yakushi was now down on a knee.

"Who are you?" asked Deacon.

"Go blow yourself!" shouted Yakushi.

Pendleton once again pushed the same button, Yakushi growled in pain.

"You test my patience boy! Who…. Are….. you?" said Deacon.

"Hahaha…." Coughed Yakushi. "Your mum's hairdresser!"

Pendleton raised the voltage and again pressed the button. Yakushi growled in pain yet again, but soon after, he started to sound different, to sound demonic.

"Ohh hoo hoo! I felt a t-t-t-tingle!" said Pendleton.

"This kid must've recently awakened…. Send in the juggernaut…" said Deacon.

Yakushi was literally smoking from the shock, and the blade he was wielding was melting.

"The shit kind of blade is this?" he complained as he threw it away.

The doors around closed, but a bigger door opened up behind him.

"Aww isn't that generous? Going to give me a tank this time?" said Yakushi as he turned around.

He suddenly got punched and flew towards a wall, a huge demon with six arms stepped out of the big door. It had no eyes at all, and it looked pretty grotesque. Yakushi then noticed behind Deacon and Pendleton, there is a sword with a broken blade, and very much like the one Yakushi saw in his dreams.

"It can't be…." Said Yakushi.

But before long, the demon began to attack again, Yakushi charged for it and the demon was about to crush him with all six of its arms. He avoided it by sliding underneath its legs and literally kicked its ass.

"How the hell does this blind shit know where I am without any eyes?" shouted Yakushi.

Suddenly, many eyes opened up all over the demon's body, it can see from all angles, just that the head only has a mouth and that's it.

"Oh Great… I had to ask…." Said Yakushi.

"Enjoy yourself with my pet….. Call me in when you have something…" said Deacon, as he exited the room.

"Yes, of c-c-c-course!" said Pendleton.

"Where the hell are my friends?" shouted Yakushi. "Deacon! Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"It seems you have more problems at hand!" said Pendleton. "If you want to find them, I suggest you tell me what I want to know….. otherwise they'll meet their d-d-d-d-demise…."

"Well isn't that kinda harsh? Killing them because I wouldn't… t-t-t-t-t-talk?" said Yakushi as he dodged another blow.

Yakushi then dashed towards the demon and gave a full force straight punch on one of its eyes. His arm penetrated one of its eyes as he pulled it out and tried to attack another eye, but it grabbed him with two of its arms and slammed him on the ground. It then pummelled him repeatedly with its other four arms. Yakushi's body was starting to give off sparks of red lightning as he broke free of its arms.

"Son of a bitch! That hurt…" said Yakushi. "Hey! Let me out of here already!"

"T-t-t-tell me what I want to know first…" said Pendleton.

"Go blow yourself!"

"Then have fun!"

Yakushi then took some time to analyse the demon, then he finally figured a way to kick its ass. He smirked and started to taunt the demon.

"What's the matter? Scared?" taunted Yakushi.

The demon roared and started to charge at him.

"If Cai was here, I bet she'd be saying… let's do this DASHIT STYLE!" thought Yakushi.

Just before the demon managed to hit him he did the same thing again, he punched another one of its eyes, while it roared in pain, he took the opportunity to jump inside its mouth.

"What in the world?" said Pendleton.

The demon was struggling a lot, rolling on the floor as if it had some stomach ache, and then Yakushi suddenly came out through its mouth, holding some a gigantic vein. He then pulled it as hard as he could, and almost literally, he turned the demon inside out, but instead, it exploded and chunks of meat splattered around the area.

"Aw shit the bad part of this plan… ugh….. disgusting…" said Yakushi, wiping blood and meat off him."

Yakushi then looked for the door he slid through, he busted it open and worked his way up, then ended up inside the same room as Pendleton.

"No no no!" said Pendleton as he reached for the alarm button.

But Yakushi threw the head of the juggernaut towards Pendleton and knocked him down. He got frightened and crawled backwards. Yakushi then grabbed Pendleton and threw him away from the alarm button. Just in case, he dismantled the button and busted its circuits.

"This can't be… b-b-b-b-but how?" panicked Pendleton.

Yakushi grabbed Pendleton on the shirt and Pendleton started to panic like a little girl.

"Tell me where my comrades are…" said Yakushi.

Pendleton suddenly stopped panicking and gave a smirk, he was acting all along. Suddenly a demon with a huge sword impaled Yakushi on a wall.

"GAH!" growled Yakushi.

The demon then pulled out its sword and another two demons pinned his arms to the wall with blades. Yakushi was now hanging on the wall, helpless, and warned out. Pendleton slowly approached him and had a blade in hand and said,

"Well this certainly is most interesting,,,, you're still alive despite taking a blow from a huge blade…"


	23. Contract 23: Bonds

"Ugh!" growled Yakushi.

Pendleton started to retrieve blood samples from Yakushi's wounds and placed them in a machine. It started scanning and displayed results on a huge screen. It pictures Yakushi's DNA, but it wasn't anything Pendleton has ever seen.

"This…this is…. Interesting….." he said.

"What the hell is that?" said Yakushi.

"Don't you see?... You're h-h-h-h-h-half demon! And a rare b-b-b-b-breed too!"

"Bullshit…."

"I'm giving you a chance….. join me….. join us….. and together, we'll r-r-r-rule this world! Live like kings!"

"You're mad….." said Yakushi as he spat blood on Pendleton's face.

Pendleton got pissed off, as he took up his blade and lunged it on Yakushi's torso.

"UGH!" growled Yakushi.

Pendleton then pulled out his blade and ordered the demons to kill him.

"T-t-t-t-take him out!" he said.

The demons rushed at Yakushi, hanging by his arms pinned to the wall, and he slowly started to lose consciousness.

"I... I can't take it….ugh…" murmured Yakushi. "Darren…. Azaria… Noah…..Emile… Cai….Norami…..Samantha…Jenova….. ugh… I'm sorry guys…"

Yakushi felt like giving up already, there was no way out. He slowly closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. But after a while, he opened his eyes, he was standing in the middle of nowhere, every turn he made, he only saw darkness.

"Wh-where am I?..." he said to himself. "Am… am I dead?..."

He then suddenly heard a scream, he turned towards the direction of it and saw that there was a pile of bodies right in front of him.

"N-no…. this is…." He said.

Suddenly, there were demons crawling all around him.

"Aw shit…."

But suddenly, there was a child next to him, holding a pair of knives. The child charged towards the demons, screaming his heart out. And the next thing he knew, the demons were slain. There in front of him, the child was on his knees, crying.

"That's… That's me….." said Yakushi.

A demonic voice then echoed out,

"You still remember it don't you? What happened back then? Do you wish that happen to your friends?"

"What? Who's there?"

The pile of dead bodies disappeared, but the child remained. The child stood up, and pointed behind Yakushi. Yakushi turned around and was shocked, there were bodies on the ground, dead bodies, of his friends.

"Do you want them to be like that?" said the demonic voice.

Yakushi clenched his fists and said,

"No way in hell…"

Yakushi turned around and faced the child,

"You know what you live for…." Said the child.

Turns out the demonic voice came from the child, but Yakushi wasn't surprised at all. Both their eyes started to flash red, and their face started to shadow, leaving their glowing eyes shining out.

"We, shall fight until eternity…. For our comrades…" said the two.

The whole thing was a dream, and now, in reality, the demons were already about to kill Yakushi, who was still helpless and severely wounded. Just before the final blow, Yakushi's eyes flashed red, and all of a sudden, the broken blade that he saw just fused back and flew onto his hand. He then shoved the demons away with a powerful power burst. The burst knocked Pendleton off his feet, as he stabbed the ground with his sword, holding his ground. There was a thick smoke covering the area, and Pendleton tried to see what was going on, until he saw Yakushi with the blade that was once broken on his hand.

"H-h-h-h-how can it be?" said Pendleton.

His eyes got bigger as the smoke cleared up and saw Yakushi slowly walking towards him. Yakushi's eyes were glowing red, his hands had talons, he had four wings from the back of his waist, his shoulders were sharp, and what looked like a sword sheath was attached to his right arm. Yakushi was completely unrecognizable, he transformed into a demon.

"That's d-d-d-demonic power!" panicked Pendleton.

"You…." Said Yakushi.

Yakushi's voice sounded very much like a demon now, as if his voice was accompanied by other voices at the same time.

"You will regret this…"

Yakushi then gripped the blade tightly and gave it a swing, it created a huge wave that almost hit Pendleton. Instead it destroyed a wall inside the dome.

"T-t-t-t-this is preposterous! Preposterous!" shouted Pendleton as he tried to escape via the hole Yakushi created.

Yakushi then gave a loud roar as he then dropped on his knees, and soon enough, he transformed back. He touched his chest and felt no wounds at all, he was completely healed up. He then looked at the sword he had, it was the same one he thought he's been dreaming about, sparking with red lightning, and had engravings on it. He looked at the hilt, and there was something embedded on it, a word, redemption.

"Redemption." Said Yakushi. "Must be the name of the blade…. Hahahaha… Ahahahaha….., God…. I really a demon…. The others are going to kill me….. ugh… I have to find them…."

Yakushi sheathed his new blade, the Redemption and made his way out of the lab and tried to find a way to get out.

"I really hope the others are alright…" said Yakushi. "Even if I'll become a demon, so be it….. No one is going to die….."


	24. Contract 24: Vengeance and Retribution

Yakushi rushed through the base, trying to avoid any guards along the way, until he stumbled on a high security room.

"This place isn't the exit, but there's hell more soldiers here than other guarded areas…" he thought.

The room was labelled top secret weapons facility, Yakushi got curious and wanted to find out what weapons they had that were so top secret. All of a sudden, the alarm went off, and there were squads moving out. The guards left their posts and joined the others, however only four stayed behind.

"Intruder alert… Intruder alert." Went the alarm. "Two unknown hostiles have breached the facility, keep them away from the subjects… repeat…. Keep them away from subjects. Weapons free.."

"I wonder who it is, just my luck… makes breaching this room easier now." Thought Yakushi.

When the other soldiers went off, leaving four of them behind, Yakushi tried to crawl up the ceiling and have the drop behind them. He does so successfully without being spotted, and knocks all four of the guards out with the hilt of his sword.

"Good night…" he said.

There was a passcode to the door which Yakushi didn't know of, but instead of attempting to hack the door panel, he drew his sword and sliced the whole door in half.

"Damn…. This blade is amazing…"

The doors collapse and the alarm system went off, but Yakushi immediately threw his sword to the electrical systems and caused the alarm to cease. And just by thinking so, the sword returned to him just by his sheer will.

"So this is what it's like to have power…. Maybe I should get Cai to teach me Haiten arts or something…." Mumbled Yakushi.

He entered the room and saw a huge armory, armor, guns, blades, tanks, enough equipment to start a world war.

"These guys are seriously packed…"

Yakushi then noticed something flashing in the far end corner of the room, he headed towards it and saw a pair of unique pistols. Both guns were black in colour, one of them had the structure of a desert Eagle magnum, but it was customized and turned it into something else, on the barrel, it was engraved, Vengeance. The other gun wasn't really a pistol, but a revolver instead, looked like an Anaconda but barrel was completely remodelled, it looked like one of those Ritchie Revolvers, ones with a really large barrel, on it was engraved Retribution. Both guns were locked inside an odd looking box, he tried to punch the lock open, but he barely dented it. He then picked up a random gun and blasted it, but it didn't work either. Yakushi thought if a gun can't break it, what can. But he remembered that his sword possess a lot of power, as he drew it out of its sheath, the blade flashed with a black aura, and for some reason, so did the guns inside the box.

Yakushi slashed the box wide open, and it worked, although he wondered why did the guns and his sword flash with a black aura.

"Maybe… these are connected somehow….." said Yakushi.

He sheathed his sword and took up the pistols, once again it flashed with black aura, and so did Yakushi's devil form. It flashed continuously until Yakushi's hands were engulfed in a black flame, but he felt no pain. After so, the black flame rose up in front of him, and entered his chest.

"…. That was weird…" he thought.

Guards then entered the armory and spotted Yakushi.

"Stop right there!" shouted a soldier.

There were about twelve soldiers all in all, and they surrounded him, having their rifles take aim at him.

"Drop your weapons!"

Yakushi suddenly felt power surging from his chest and then he felt it travel to his hands. He gave a smirk, leaned backwards and shot two of the soldiers in the head. He started rolling on the floor and kicked the air to get him on his feet. The soldiers started to open fire, but Yakushi jumps high into the air. He pointed the Vengeance and Retribution downwards and started spinning while shooting, he made it rain bullets on the soldiers. As soon as he landed, all of them were dead, he ejected the magazines of each gun, he noticed that there were no more bullets left. But after a while, ammunition just appeared from out of nowhere, soon enough, he was fully loaded again.

"Now this is what I'm taking about…" said Yakushi.

The alarm went off again, indicating the two intruders who were going for his friends. He got worried that they might be hunters or demons trying to kill them. He then headed out for where all the commotion was. Yakushi followed the sound of gunfire into one of the hangar bays, he took cover on an elevated area and tried to spot out what was going on. Aside from all the gunshots, he heard women screaming, but they sounded really familiar. He tried to get down lower to see who they were, fortunately for him, it was a sight for sore eyes. It was Cai and Jenova, wearing military uniforms.

Jenova was still using her same old rifle, while Cai was going all out with two P90 submachine guns.

"Come on! Die already!" shouted Cai.

"There's too many! I can't get a good shot!" said Jenova.

Yakushi then jumped down and shot down all the other soldiers from the back, they didn't expect Yakushi to storm in, they were caught off guard, and soon, they were all dead. He finished off by spinning both guns and holstering them behind him.

"Y-Yakushi?" said Cai. "Is that you?"

Yakushi gave them a two finger salute as the two girls ran towards him and gave him a big hug.

"Yakushi!" shouted the two.

"Oh… hey hey!... good to see you two too." Said Yakushi.

"Damn it! I thought they were going to kill you…" sniffed Jenova.

"Hehehe… I'm not that easy to kill…. But let's save the reunion for later, the others are still inside, we've got to get them out of here!"

"Right!" said the two.

Yakushi, Cai and Jenova rushed into the base, looking for the rest of the group, hoping nothing has happened to them yet.


	25. Contract 25: Regroup

Yakushi, Cai and Jenova infiltrated the military base to save the rest of the group. Despite leaving a mess on the hangar bay, they managed to stay out of site. Until they heard a familiar voice shouting in a nearby room. They went to investigate, it was Emile being interrogated by an officer, and two guards were standing by the door.

"I told you! I don't know what you're talking about!" shouted Emile.

"You're testing my patience!" said the officer, pulling out a combat knife.

Cai and Jenova dropped behind each of the guards and took them out silently, Yakushi dropped directly on the officer and kicked his knife away.

"Yakushi! Cai! Jenova!" said Emile. "You couldn't have come at a better time!"

Yakushi pushed the officer against the wall and pulled out Vengeance, he had the officer gunpoint now.

"Tell me what I want to know and you'll be free to go…" he said.

"Screw you! As if!" shouted the officer.

Yakushi looked around, and noticed a window, they were pretty high up, the fall could kill one already. Yakushi threw the officer near the window and pulled out the Retribution.

"The odds aren't exactly good on your end, the way I see it, you have two ways down, express or coach…"

"Listen buddy, I ain't telling you shit, there's a whole army guarding this base, no way you can make it out alive." Said the officer.

"Not the answer we were looking for." Added Jenova as she knocked the officer's stomach with her gun.

"You all will die! You hear me? You all will!"

Before he could finish, Emile interrupted and kicked the officer off the window, and fell to his death.

"Goodbye SIR!" said Emile sarcastically as he picked up a rifle of a dead guard. "Follow me, I know where the rest are held."

They were heading for the prison cell, it was lightly guarded and the squad took them all out. They found Azaria, Noah and Darren just sitting in a single cell. Sad to say, they all look pretty beaten up.

"Good Lord! What happened to you all?" exclaimed Emile.

They weren't able to speak properly, their wounds were severe and require medical attention.

"We need to get them out of here, fast!" said Yakushi.

"But how? We can't get to a hospital at this pace!" complained Emile.

Yakushi holstered his guns and drew out his sword, he then stood in front of a wall, and gave it a full force swing. And just like that, the wall shattered.

"Woah!" said Jenova.

"We can discuss how I did it later, for now, Jenova, I think you should escort Emile and the others to a hospital, it should be a clear run from here on.…." Said Yakushi.

"I understand."

"Cai and I will find Samantha and Norami, get out of here!"

"Aye! Be careful you two!" said Emile.

"Roger that!" said Cai and Yakushi.

Cai and Yakushi decided to travel the area via the vents, they travelled as fast as they could, until eventually, they found Norami and Samantha. They were still inside containers, deep asleep or knocked out. But the area was heavily guarded, not just by soldiers, but by armoured demons too.

"Is the military working with demons now?" whispered Cai.

Yakushi didn't say anything, as his mind stumbled into deep thoughts, he recalled taking the form of a demon, despite being a slayer himself.

"Yakushi… Yakushi!" said Cai.

"Huh? Ugh… sorry…" said Yakushi, shaking his head.

"You alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine…"

"Sure? Doesn't seem like it…. How'd you get loose anyway?"

"…It… It doesn't matter now, we need to save Norami and Samantha…"

"Right, of course… yeah…"

"There's no way to sneak past them and….."

"And what?"

Yakushi then noticed that Cai was still wearing the military uniform, just without a helmet.

"Maybe we could use the same trick on how you got in.. just without the fireworks…"

"Hmm? I don't get it…"

Yakushi then spotted two guards standing near them, he thought no one would notice if they were to be missing. He slowly opened the vents and at the same time, Yakushi and Cai twisted both the soldiers necks. They brought their bodies in and switched uniforms, they looked a lot like military soldiers now. The two got out the vent and walked towards the containers. They passed by a couple of demon soldiers, until one of them actually spoke.

"Stop!" said the demon. "You two…. Smell funny…"

"What's it to you big guy?" said Cai.

Yakushi stretched his hand in front of Cai, the demon drew its blade and pointed it at Cai.

"You…. Learn to know your place….. I'll be keeping an eye on you two…"

The demon walked away, and Yakushi stared at Cai for some time.

"What?" said Cai.

"N-nothing…. Try to keep it down eh? We're sneaking in after all…" replied Yakushi.

"Oh… I'm sorry…"

"Come on… we've got to get them out of here…"

Yakushi headed for the console controlling the containers, he set it to open up and quickly ran as far away as he could from the containers without being seen.

"What're you doing?" said Cai.

"Stay down…." Said Yakushi.

The containers opened up, and it caught the attention of the guards and demons. Yakushi removed his helmet and disguise and drew out Retribution and Redemption.

"I'll take care of the diversion, there's a military jeep just parked south of here, I need you to…" said Yakushi.

"No way Yakushi!" said Cai.

"huh? Cai…?"

"You've risked a lot for us already… let me back you up at least! We'd stand a chance against these bastards… Like it or not, I'm fighting along side you!"

Cai then removed her disguise and drew out her dual blades, she started attacking the unaware guards. Yakushi gave a smirk and followed up, the two of them were fighting almost impossible odds back to back. Cai was right, they did stand a chance, originally Yakushi wanted to unleash the devil within upon them, but despite the impossible odds, he was smiling while fighting alongside a skilled friend like Cai.

"Watch my back then…" said the two.


	26. Contract 26: One Winged Angel

Soldiers and demons attempted to overwhelm Cai and Yakushi, but the two managed to hold out every attack made. Despite impossible odds, they faired pretty well.

"We need to finish this quickly…. Got any idea how?" asked Yakushi.

"Just one…" said Cai.

Cai started spinning her blades, and slammed them to the ground, the slam created a huge shockwave that sent all hostiles in the air.

"Go! Get the two while I'll hold them off!" shouted Cai.

"Alright!" said Yakushi.

Cai stuck to Yakushi's back and deflected any incoming bullet. Yakushi got Samantha and Norami out of their containers, but he can't move as fast while holding two people at once. If both of them were to carry one person each, they have a high chance of being shot.

"Come on! Wake up!" said Yakushi.

Yakushi looked around and noticed a military jeep nearby, he had an idea, but that means going to open area, and Cai wouldn't be able to deflect all bullets.

"So what now?" asked Yakushi.

"Get the two out of here…. I'll catch up…" said Cai.

"But you're… make sure you get back alive…"

"Don't worry, I will…" smirked Cai. "Get going then, I'll cover you."

Yakushi grabbed Samantha and Norami and made a dash for the jeep. Cai stood close to him and deflected any incoming bullet, Yakushi managed to make it to the jeep and had Samantha and Norami get in. He hotwired the jeep and managed to get the engine working.

"We can all go at the same time you know, come on!" said Yakushi.

"No can do! They'll pursue us if we all leave, I'll try to fend them off for a while, then I'll make my escape! So they can't track us down in the future!" said Cai.

"…..Damn it… alright… Make sure you meant what you said earlier!"

Yakushi then drove off with Samantha and Norami, Cai destroyed the ceiling to block the road and holstered her blades.

"One puny little girl? What is this?" shouted a demon.

Cai then started to chant while putting her hands together, then slowly, she got on one knee and placed her hands on the ground. The demons suddenly went berserk and was attempted an attack, but just before the first hit, Cai unleashed a burning light. The demons and soldiers who were too close vanished as others were pushed back. Cai's eyes were burning with white fire, and there were glowing markings on her face.

An angelic wing suddenly sprouted from the right side of her back and wrapped around her whole body. Once again, there was a beam of light, and the wing stretched out. Cai became something else, she had a white armor plating with golden trims and jewels embedded on them, a tiara on her head and a pair of snake shaped blades. She was like a female knight, but with only one angelic wing.

Cai raised her hand and clenched her fists, on the ceiling, a cloud emerged. The soldiers were stunned by what she did. Cai then brought her hand down, and from within the cloud, rained arrows burning in white fire. The soldiers and demons were demoralized and started panicking, some of them also went berserk and charged for Cai.

Cai quickly draws her blades and dashed through the first two demons she saw, with just one slice, both demons were in half. She then disappeared before the demons could get a glimpse of her when they turned around. Suddenly two blades came crashing down, each blade struck a demon. Cai was attacking from above, she landed right between her blades, pulled them out, and struck every demon surrounding her. Soldiers then started to grab rocket launchers and began firing at her.

Just before a rocket hit Cai, she placed her hand on the rocket, and performs a u-turn, sending the rocket back. The explosion knocked a pillar of the building, and the roof was shaking.

"Time to bring down the house…. Literally!" she said.

Another rocket was about to hit her, but this time, she leaned back and placed her feet on it, and ended up literally surfing on a rocket.

"Now this is DASHIT!" she shouted.

She controlled the rocket to lead her to another pillar and slashed it with her blades.

"4 down, two to go!" she said.

A number of demons tried to intercept her, and they were getting annoying. Cai controlled the rocket to get herself lower. She holstered her swords, and tackled two soldiers and quickly grabbed their rifles. Numerous demons were standing in her path, she kicked to one side and started spinning on the rocket. She merely span her way through the demons, blasting them away with the rifles she grabbed.

"YAHOO!" she shouted.

When the rifles went dry, she threw them towards other soldiers, and kicked the rocket to another pillar. The base was already about to collapse, but soldiers and demons were still attacking despite the chaos. Cai spread her wing and flew outside the base. She targeted the last pillar holding the building up and showed it an open hand. The pillar suddenly started to glow, but when Cai clenched her fists, the pillar just exploded and the roof came crashing down on anything below it.

"That was DASHIT!" shouted Cai.

But her joy in victory was interrupted by a mysterious man in the shadows, clapping his hands.

"Bravo…. Bravo…" went the man.


	27. Contract 27: Family Reunion

The man stepped out of the shadows, and Cai had a clear view of him. She clenched her fists and gave an aggressive glare.

"You….." said Cai.

The man turned out to be Deacon, just standing there, giving a grin smile and sharp glare.

"I didn't realize it'd…" said Deacon.

Just before he finished, Cai extended her hands, and her blades appeared. She dived down and headed straight for Deacon.

"YOU BASTARD!" shouted Cai.

Deacon just disappeared in front of Cai before she landed her attack. Cai then sensed Deacon striking from the back with his stick, but she defends with one of her blades.

"Very good…. Seems the years haven't let you go to waste!" said Deacon.

"Shut up!" shouted Cai.

Cai continued attacking Deacon, but he was too swift, and dodged all of Cai's attacks. After a while, Cai was getting tired, and she was barely holding her angel powers. Soon enough, she got on her knees and transformed back.

"No!" coughed Cai. "Not now!"

Deacon kicked Cai down on the floor, grabbed her by the neck and lifted her into the air. Lightning struck and then it started to pour heavily, Cai tried to break off Deacon's grip, but the more she tried, the harder Deacon grips her neck.

"But yet… you are still weak half angel…." Said Deacon.

"You… You can go to hell…" struggled Cai.

"Ow! I am so hurt! Now why would you tell that to your dear old…. Father?"

"You're just a foul scumbag like demons!"

"Scumbag? Demons? Oh! This is the life! You must love insulting people now!"

"What're you talking about?"

"I'm talking about…"

But before Deacon could finish, his arm was shot, and Cai broke off his grip, but she felt weaker and tried to crawl away.

"Who's there?" shouted Deacon.

It was Yakushi, he took aim with the Vengeance and fired another shot, but this time Deacon manages to dodge it. Yakushi continues to shoot him, but Deacon managed to dodge them all and retreated, soon he was out of sight.

"Who the hell is that guy…" thought Yakushi.

Yakushi then noticed Cai, lying on the ground, immobile.

"CAI!" he shouted. "Don't you dare die!"

Yakushi placed his fingers on her neck, tried to feel a pulse, after a while he did so.

"Got to get you out of here…." He said as he carried Cai.

Yakushi noticed that the military was looking for them, he could hear search parties on the lookout.

"FIND THEM!" they said.

But Yakushi managed to make it out with Cai, without a trace. He made a break for it as soon as the military base was out of sight, but he never got a chance to take a break ever since he woke up. Yakushi ended up taking Cai up into an abandoned watch tower in the nearby forest. There he put Cai down, took off his coat and laid it over her.

Cai was shivering and hugged Yakushi's coat, until she woke up, and saw Yakushi sitting in the corner.

"You tried to play hero didn't you?" said Yakushi.

"Yakushi….." said Cai, shaking her head. "I could've done it on my own….."

"You're welcome… what happened? How'd that guy in the suit beat you?"

"I…. I don't know…."

"He said his name was Deacon… Do you know this guy?"

Cai was shocked to hear that name, and Yakushi could see it in her eyes, something was up.

"You've got a grudge on him or something?" asked Yakushi.

"Deacon… it's way more than a grudge…."murmured Cai.

"uh…. What?"

"Deacon….. he's the worst son of a bitch you'd ever meet…. A monster, a traitor… a murderer…."

"Oh…."

"Yakushi… Deacon… is…. My father!"

"WHAT THE? YOU'RE KIDDING! But he tried to kill you!"

"I know…" sighed Cai. "It's a long story…. You wouldn't be interested….. he's just another demon to kill…"

"Come on Cai, I want to know….."

"…..alright…. but you should never ever tell anyone! Not even Samantha, or Jenova or Norami!"

"Cross my heart and hope to die…."

"My father…. Deacon… was formerly and angel, one of the holy guardians of heaven too. My mum however, is human."

"Father… mother… wait….. don't tell me….. you're an angel?" gasped Yakushi.

"Well….. half angel technically…" said Cai as she used the remainder of her power to spread out her angel wing.

"Woah….. half angels have only one wing?"

"I guess… anyway, when I was nine, Deacon left me in the Haiten village, to train as a high guardian of the elder. But, one day, when I came back home….I saw… I saw…"

Cai was shivering a bit more, Yakushi then stood up, tapped her on the shoulder and sat beside her.

"Alright alright, I'm not going to force you to tell what you saw…"

"I saw my mum, dead… and standing in front of her body….. with a blade, my father… Deacon killed my mother!"

"So much for not forcing you to… wait…. WHAT? YOU'RE KIDDING!"

"I wish I am… but I saw it with my own eyes…. He even tried to kill me…. He mortally wounded me, but he didn't finish me off. I just laid there and cried while he laughed and disappeared, he was a guardian angel, and now, he's betrayed us all!"

"Aw man….I'm so sorry to hear that….."

"That's why… ever since….. I've wanted to hunt him down, and kill all demons!"

When Yakushi heard that, he thought of him being a demon himself, and felt kind of sad, if she or anyone found out about his demonic power, they'd turn against him.

"We'll get him…." Said Yakushi as he got up, and offered his hand to Cai. "He's pissed me off too anyway, I'd like to give that guy a piece of my mind….. I bet the others feel the same way. I've got a hunch that he's the one who gave the order to capture us….."

Cai grabbed Yakushi's hand and stood up.

"Yeah… you're right…." Said Cai. "Hehe, I can't believe you went bad ass on him!"

"What do you mean badass? I just went to get you out…"

"Yeah? Where's your coat then?"

"Uh… right around you…"

"What?" said Cai as she looked around herself, and saw Yakushi's coat. "your coat…"

"I thought you'd feel cold so…."

"IS DASHIT!" interrupted Cai..

"Uh….. never mind…. Thanks?... let's go find the others…. We need to regroup….."

"Yeah… you're …"

"After the rain stops, so we're resting in this tower for now…."

"right…."


	28. Contract 28: Two sides of the same coin

The next day, the rain finally stopped, but the sky was still greyish, as if another storm is approaching. Yakushi woke up and tried to spot for any hostile in the area, but after a thorough search, they were clear, at least for now. He looked up into the sky and raised his hand, then clenched his fist.

"Still can't believe I've become a demon…" he thought. "Can't keep this forever too….. Damn it…"

Cai then suddenly threw Yakushi's coat over his face.

"Hey what the?" said Yakushi as he struggled off his coat.

"Come on! We've got to find the others!" said Cai as she stood at the edge of the tower.

"Early riser eh?" said Yakushi as he put on his coat. "You didn't drool on my coat did you? Hehehe"

"DASHIT!"

"Just kidding hehehe! But you feeling alright? You took quite a beating back then…."

"I can still run, but I'm in no condition to fight yet…." Sighed Cai.

"None of us are….. anyway I bet the rest will be in HQ, but I'm not sure if the military will be surrounding the area."

"Only one way to find out." Said Cai as she dashed off.

"Wait wait wait wait wait… ah forget it!" said Yakushi as he dashed off as well.

The two of them made their way towards Yakushi's old headquarters. When they got there, it wasn't what they expected, the road was clear, no soldier nor demon could've been spotted. They hid in the nearby alley way, Yakushi suspected there might be snipers in the area, but he couldn't see any at all.

"Seems pretty normal…" said Yakushi.

"Like a ghost town at least…" added Cai.

"Tell me about it…. Ok, I'm going to run for the door, I'll signal you to follow when it's all cleared."

"Alright, don't die out there…"

Yakushi then sprinted to the nearest wall he could find, looked around and still nothing. Slowly, he gets closer to the headquarters. He then signals Cai to catch up, using the same path that he took, and like Yakushi, she made it through in one piece.

"I'm beginning to think there's no one…." Said Cai.

"Shhh!" interrupted Yakushi as he placed his hand over Cai's mouth.

Suddenly they both heard movement just right above them. Yakushi pulled out his pistols and slowly moved sideways to see who it was. Sadly, he couldn't get a good angle without being spotted, he then thought of a plan in attempt to take the person out.

"I got your back, the person's right above you.." whispered Yakushi. "Grab his legs and pull him down to the ground, I'll blast its head off."

"Alright…" replied Cai.

Cai then slowly climbed the edge of the roof, Yakushi then took aim with his guns and released the safety.

"On three…" said Cai. "One…. Two…."

"THREE!" shouted the two.

Cai pulled the person off the roof and landed face flat on the ground, Yakushi then lightly kicked the person to flip over, he took aim at the head and was about to pull the trigger. But turns out, it was Jenova.

"WAIT! WAIT! DON'T SHOOT!" shouted Jenova.

"Holy shit Jenova! We nearly killed you!" said Cai as she hugged Jenova.

Yakushi then quickly holstered his guns and tried to help Jenova up.

"I'm glad you didn't pull the trigger yet…. That was close….. seriously…" said Jenova.

"Shit shit shit! You alright?" exclaimed Yakushi.

"If you call landing face flat on the ground ok… yeah I'm better than ever." She said as she wiped the blood off her nose.

"We're sorry…" said Yakushi and Cai.

"It's alright….. I'm glad it was you two.. would've been toast of it was someone else…. Anyway let's go inside, I'll explain everything inside."

The three then headed inside the headquarters, everything was as normal as they last saw it, untouched at all.

"The military couldn't find this place…. Your friend Darren has a few tricks up his sleeve, despite having all the computers and gadgets, he's clear off any radar at all."

"I didn't know we had that installed…" said Yakushi.

Darren then suddenly burst into the room.

"I'm just that good…" he said.

"Darren! Glad you're alright!" said Yakushi, shaking Darren's hand.

"Where's the others?" asked Cai.

"They're having a rest right now… lucky for us, none of us were touched….. well at least I hope so.." said Darren.

"I see…. Speaking of rests, I could use one about now…" yawned Cai. "But are we safe?"

"We will be, the military rarely patrols this area, we're basically off the map here….. Anyway you all must be warned out, get some rest, once we're all better, we have much to discuss."

"Agreed….. I'll keep an eye on the radar just in case, I got your backs." Added Jenova.

Yakushi and Cai then proceeded to their quarters. Cai felt really tired, threw her blades aside, took off her footwear and threw herself on the bed. She tried to sleep, but every time she closes her eyes, she flashbacks to when she fought her father.

Cai rolled around the bed, trying to sleep peacefully, grabbed her head, and then gave up and stared at the ceiling.

"What the hell…." She said. "Of all people to come across… Finally found you…."

Cai looked out the window, it started to pour again, she stands up and stands in front of it, looking at the dark sky. Suddenly, a voice echoed out.

"You know you'll need a lot more to take him on…"

Cai was freaked out for a while, she quickly turned around to see who said it, but there was no one at all.

"Must be my imagination…" thought Cai.

"More than that actually…" echoed the voice again.

The voice was very similar to Cai's voice, but it sounded like it was accompanied by another female's voice at the same time, like two people speaking simultaneously.

"Who's there?" exclaimed Cai.

"Calm down.." said the voice. "I mean you no harm…"

Suddenly, just right in front of her, there was a beam of light emerging from the ground, it blinded her for a while, but as soon as it clears out, she sees her angelic form, standing right there, the same image she was when she fought Deacon.

"Y-You're me….." said Cai.

"In a way yes…." Said the angelic form.

"How is it I can talk to myself? Or am I dreaming?"

The angelic form them pinched Cai on the face.

"Hey! that hurt!"

"That proves you're not dreaming…"

"Holy shit… you're right! Who are you?"

"I am….. a soul of an angel, sent down from the heavens to help you. I am Neita , the one winged angel."

"Neita? Sent from the heavens? Why help me of all people?"

"Because you're the only one who can stop him, and you're his daughter. Deacon must pay for his crimes too."

"Aw man….." sighed Cai.

"Something the matter?"

"Sorry, I'm having a hard time getting this all in my head…"

"I understand…. Anyway to sum it all up, my power is yours to command."

After that, Neita faded away, and Cai leaped onto her bed.

"Guess I have a guardian angel now eh… Being an angel…. What a mouthful." She thought as she slowly dozed off.

Yakushi on the other hand, just placed his sword in one corner, sat on his bed and stared at it. He meditated on the events that have happened, especially at the military base. He recalled himself becoming a demon, he got a little mad and stood up from his bed and reached for the sword. Just before he touched it, he felt his heart beating faster, and soon his chest started to hurt.

"Ugh…" he cried.

His body released flashes of black aura as he looks at his hand, ever flash transforms his hand and back. At first he sees his regular human hand, then with a suddenly flash, it transforms to a hand with talons and dark vein patterns, then back.

"What the hell…" he said.

The pain the suddenly relieves, then he reached for the sword and drew out the blade. The sword was glowing with black aura, he looked at the engravings on the blade, also flashing, but with red light.

"Retribution eh?"

Yakushi looked into his own reflection on the blade, as clear as looking at the mirror. When lightning flashed outside, his reflection changed. In that split second, he saw his demon form, he got pissed off a bit more, sheathed the blade, put it back, and walked towards the window.

"If anyone of my friends find out…. Aw man…. Who can I count on?" he thought. "Maybe I should get away from the others…. Could be better….. Damn it I hate this…."


	29. Contract 29: Unholy Ritual

"The military and demons are working together now….." thought Yakushi. "But what could both sides possibly want that would cause both to join sides? Demon power too… damn…"

Yakushi laid back on his bed, thinking about the past events, and how lucky he and his friends are to be able to rest in a safe place. A number of weeks have passed since the time of their capture, and the military have already ruled the streets, martial law was declared, demons were free to roam, and many people have been disappearing. At least, until today, something different happened.

"YAKUSHI!" shouted Noah, knocking at Yakushi's door.

"What is it? Come in!" said Yakushi.

"Better get to the living room and see what's on TV, this is big!"

Yakushi got up and followed Noah to the living room, everyone else was there, watching the news. It showed that multiple black towers have suddenly risen from the ground in various locations.

"The hell is that?" asked Yakushi.

"Good Lord I recognize it!" said Emile.

"Speak up then!" said Cai.

"H-H-Hell's gate….."

"Hell's gate? As in THE HELL'S GATE?" exclaimed Norami.

"The demon army is on its way….. Unless the gates are destroyed, we're all doomed. No one can repel the army from hell…."

"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go out and destroy it!" shouted Noah.

"Yeah… as if we could just go there and just blow it up….. think a bit man… now that the military are siding with the demons, you think the gates would be left unguarded?" added Azaria.

"Uh…"

"No way we're fighting our way through if ever that crosses your mind."

"Damn it… you know me too well…."

While the others were discussing on how to destroy hell's gate, Yakushi made his way to the rooftops and looked out at the city. From there, he spotted four of hell's gates, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Once again, dark clouds started to form up, but instead of heavy rain, there was a lightning storm. Yakushi's demon form started to flash out from time to time, as he could feel the evil in the air. He raised his hand up into the sky and started to mumble.

"My army comes from deep within….. beneath my soul, beneath my skin….. as you're ending and I'm about to begin, my strength, their bane, I will never give in…."

Lightning then struck his hand, but it didn't hurt him, instead, he absorbed it. He held in his hand, a ball of flashing blue lightning, he clenched his fist a bit as the lightning started to turn black.

"So this is the demon's power…" he thought.

Cai then entered the rooftops and saw Yakushi, with the black lightning on his hands.

"How…..You know Haiten arts as well?" gasped Cai.

"What the? Cai?" said Yakushi as he closed his hand and the lightning disappeared.

"No, just a random girl…. OF COURSE IT'S ME!"

"Uh…. What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing…"

"I… uh…."

"TEACH US!"

"I… wait, what?"

"TEACH US HOW YOU DID DASHIT!"

"Dashit?"

"YES DASHIT! HOW DID YOU DO THAT? I'VE NEVER KNOWN SUCH POWER!"

"Well I …" sighed Yakushi.

Before he could finish, there was a huge earthquake, but after a short while, it stopped.

"Whoah! What the hell?" said Yakushi.

Azaria then suddenly came running up to the roof.

"Guys! You'd better get ready… radar is picking up ….. a lot of shit going on in the town square!" he said.

"What sort of…" said Yakushi.

"Sorry but there's no time to explain, you'd have to see it for yourself when we get there!"

"Let's go then!" added Cai.

The whole group suited up and got a move on to the town square, when they got there, it was not what anyone would expect. Everyone took cover in nearby alleyways and rooftops. From there, they observed what was going on, they saw military soldiers jumping into some giant mouth on the ground, but what's worse is they come out, looking very big and grotesque.

"What the hell is this shit?" whispered Noah.

"Are the soldiers giving themselves to hell?" asked Azaria.

"No…"said Emile. "This is the conversion process… from human flesh and blood to demon power…. Truly an evil act."

"Then how do we stop it?" asked Jenova.

"I'm hoping we shoot our way out, mix things up a little…" said Yakushi.

"No, we'd all get killed instead…. First of all one of us has to kill a so-called priest, so that the mouth will disappear…. Problem is, dealing with it…" added Emile.

"A bullet to the head, simple solution…" said Azaria.

"You wish though…." By now the priest has already been trans…"

Before Emile could finish, a goat looking demon with wings, holding a giant firing axe appeared.

"Get down!" said Azaria.

"Shit… is that the one we're supposed to kill?" said Norami.

"Looks like so….. It's the only unique looking one."

"What's the plan then?" asked Darren.

"I want to volunteer in taking down the priest…" said Azaria.

"Same here!" added Noah, Emile and Darren.

"I think the plan is simple then, three of you target the priest, the rest of us will hold off the …. Whatever those shit faces are…. Also, make sure no one falls in the mouth or get killed…" said Yakushi.

"Roger that!" said the rest.

"Alright, we'll go first….. LET'S ROCK!" shouted Jenova.

Yakushi, Cai, Jenova, Norami and Samantha dived out and started slaying the horde of demons in the area.

"This is going to be fun…" thought Azaria.

"Wait wait!" said Noah. "I don't have a weapon! My axe broke remember?"

"What the? Why didn't you say so earlier?" said Darren, knocking Noah's head.

Yakushi overheard their conversation and gave a sigh, he pulled out his double barrel shotgun which he had for a while but rarely used and threw it to Noah, as well as a few boxes of shotgun shells.

"NOAH!" shouted Yakushi.

Noah caught the shotgun and shells and gazed at it in awe, it was customized to have better stability and it was surprisingly very light. There was also a button near the trigger to split the shotgun in two, enabling dual wielding action.

"Now get to work!" shouted Yakushi.

"LET'S GO THEN!" shouted Emile, pulling out his pistols.

Azaria started raining bullets on the demon priest, but it shielded itself with its axe as it charged towards him. Azaria jumped to the side as it charged past him, he quickly performs a sliding turn and started firing more rounds. He landed a few hits, but most of the bullets just merely bounces off its thick skin. Noah then climbed up the roof and tried to jump on its head, he attempted so and tried to shoot while in mid-air. Sadly Noah didn't know about the massive recoil, as he fired the shotgun in mid-air, the recoil sent him flying away from the demon.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" shouted Noah, flying away to the next building.


	30. Contract 30: Bad Move

"Since when you knew how to fly?" teased Samantha.

"YAKUSHI! WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH YOUR SHOTGUN?" shouted Noah, still flying from the recoil.

Yakushi just gave a smirk and continued fighting to demons and soldiers. Noah landed on a rooftop and quickly made his way back to the battlefield. Darren pulled out a pair of grenades and threw it near the feet of the demon priest. It avoided the explosion by flying up into the air, but as it looked up, Noah was there, he was pointing the shotgun at its face point blank.

"You're mine!" he shouted.

Noah pulled the trigger, he landed a headshot, but it only cracked up its face. The recoil however send him flying upwards, but he turns the tables by firing up in the air to send him down. As Noah came crashing down, he landed a solid punch on one of its horns, breaking it off.

"WAY TO GO!" shouted Azaria.

"That's just how awes….."

Before he could finish, Noah landed face flat on the ground.

"You didn't plan on how to land didn't you?" said Emile, giving a straight face. ( -_- )

"Ugh… screw you…." Complained Noah, getting back on his feet.

Azaria then noticed that the demon priest was roaring in pain, he took the opportunity to get up close and climb its back. He used the butt of his gun and whacked the back of its neck and tried to break open its thick shell. Sadly he could land a few dents but not crack it up.

"Damn it!" said Azaria as he pointed his barrel at the neck. "Take this full auto!"

Azaria unleashed all his rounds with rapid fire on its neck, slowly the thick skin started to crack up. He jumped off as the demon priest tried to shove him off. Unfortunately, Azaria didn't land properly and ended up falling down, the demon immediately turned towards him and charged up a fireball from its mouth.

"Oh shit!" shouted Azaria.

The demon launched the fireball, and Azaria tried to shield himself with his arms. But just in time, Norami used her whip to create a circular counter measure to send it flying elsewhere.

"Damn! Thought I was toast!" said Azaria. "Thanks for the assist!"

"No problem! You all could use a hand! Let me join up!" said Norami.

"Extra hand's always welcome here…"

Darren pulled out detonator bombs and planted them in surrounding buildings as fast as he could. The group noticed and already knew what the plan was.

"Think you girls can handle the horde for a while?" asked Yakushi.

"Sure… we've got all the time in the world!" said Samantha, kicking a demon.

"Roger that! Jenova! New tactic! Find a sniper spot somewhere far and high! I need you to snipe the soldiers who are jumping into the mouth! It's going to get hairy if more demons come out!"

"I understand!" shouted Jenova.

Jenova retreated from the battlefield and tried to look for a good sniper spot. Cai and Samantha were the only ones handling the horde now. Cai however, was shaking.

"Hey Cai! You alright? You're shaking you know…" asked Samantha.

"…"

"Uh… Cai? Hey! Not now!"

"I'm shaking…. With excitement!" shouted Cai.

Cai then transformed to her angel form, and then raised her hands in front of her. Two hilts appeared, and then followed by the blades, bursting out of it.

"Oh you want to play it that way eh?" smirked Samantha.

Samantha jumped into the air, spinning, and released a burst of energy. She was sparking with blue lightning and she summoned a pair of gloves and greaves. Every punch and kick she makes releases a charge of high voltage electricity.

"The hell? She's an angel too?" said Noah.

"Not an angel….. it's one of Haiten techniques! Hahaha!" shouted Samantha as she dived into the horde.

"I'm making a note not to get on her bad side…"

Cai and Samantha were fighting with tremendous speed, it was a demon onslaught. Cai was wiping out multiple demons with each strike while Samantha just merely hopped from demon to demon, popping their heads out.

"Samantha! Give me a boost!" shouted Cai.

"Alright!" shouted Samantha.

Cai cleared the demons surrounding Samantha and jumped into the air, Samantha then readied herself and shifted to a charging stance, with both her hands behind her. Just before Cai touched the ground, she shifted herself to have her feet facing Samantha.

"NOW!" shouted Cai.

Samantha then lunged both her arms at Cai's feet, the impact released a huge shockwave and sent Cai flying forward at high speed. Cai opened her arms, with blades in hand, she started spinning and turned herself into a human drill, tearing through the hordes of demons.

"That's new…" said Darren, with dropped jaws.

"You can be in awe later, deal with the priest first!" shouted Yakushi.

"R-Roger that!"

Yakushi pulled out his guns and started blasting the demon priest, hopping from side to side, drawing its attention towards him. He moved in a circular motion, hoping to get the demon to feel dizzy after a while. The idea worked, causing it to fall, and it was too dazed to stand up, but at the same time, Yakushi also got dizzy.

"Shit… Not the best idea I had…" said Yakushi, holding his mouth.

Noah then split the shotgun in two and jumped on the priest's head, he blasted it repeatedly, and soon enough, he cracked open the hard skin.

"I got him! Weak spot revealed!" shouted Noah.

"Keep at it! We need a bigger hole!" shouted Azaria.

Noah continued blasting the armoured areas, unfortunately, he was running out of ammo. Azaria and Darren already noticed so, they looked at each other, nodded, and charged straight for the priest. Emile however holstered his weapons and tended to Yakushi, who was feeling really dizzy, he injected him with a serum and moved him somewhere safe.

"The dizziness will be gone in a few minutes, let the serum run through first." Said Emile.

Yakushi pulled out his guns and took aim, Emile was shocked because the barrels were right at his face.

"What are you.." gasped Emile.

Yakushi interrupted him by pulling the trigger, Emile closed his eyes, but then later on felt his body, no wounds at all. He turned around to see that two demons were shot in the head.

"Dear Lord I thought you were going to shoot me!" said Emile.

"Best stay on your guard…. We're not completely safe yet…" said Yakushi, taking aim at other surrounding demons.

"Uh oh…. This is bad."

Emile, instead of pulling out his pistols, took out a large cross, he made the sign of the cross and started chanting.

"What are you…. Ah screw it! DIE DEMON SCUMS!" shouted Yakushi, blasting the demons off. "Of all times to get dizzy…ugh.."

The serum hasn't taken full effect yet, and Yakushi's aim was slowly going off. He wanted to call for aid, but he saw that everyone was too busy and stuck in combat.

"This just keeps getting better and better…." Said Yakushi, as his eyes started to flash red.


	31. Contract 31: Darkslayer

The demon priest was weakening, yet getting pissed off. It gave out a loud roar that made everyone cover their ears, including Cai and Samantha in their enhanced state.

"Damn that's loud!" shouted Noah.

The other demons suddenly turned to liquid and was absorbed by the demon priest. It started to struggle a lot and move around as if it was drunk. The group took the opportunity to regroup and reload.

"The hell is going on?" asked Norami.

"It's absorbing all the demonic power… and it's going unstable… this isn't going to look good. WE HAVE TO KILL IT! NOW!" shouted Emile.

"Way ahead of you!" smirked Azaria as he tapped Noah's shoulder. "Let's kick this thing's ass!"

"Mind if we take this one?" asked Noah.

"Charge then…." Said Cai.

Cai and Samantha then powered down and assisted Yakushi, who still was feeling dizzy. Jenova was still on sniper stand by, still awaiting the command to fire away. But while she was on stand-by, she noticed a shadow behind her, holding a blade, about to strike her. She dived to the side and took aim, demon soldiers found her location, she was completely surrounded and outnumbered.

"This isn't what I expected…" said Jenova.

Jenova reloaded her rifle and waited for the first strike, a demon tried to slice her, but she suddenly appears behind it with her barrel on the back of its head. She blasts its head off as she hopped from one place to another, giving out headshots.

"Guys… I'm going to be busy for a while…. Mind if I get some back up?" shouted Jenova.

"I'm on it!" shouted Samantha as she summoned her greaves and gauntlets again and dashed off to aid Jenova.

Azaria and Noah just charged for the demon priest, Noah split the shotgun in two and took aim for both knees. He fired and managed to shatter its knees while Azaria climbed his way up to its mouth, he shoved his rifle in and fired as many rounds inside its mouth as he could.

"Azaria!" shouted Noah as he threw one half of the shotgun.

Azaria caught the half gun and had it gunpoint at the demon's eye, he pulled the trigger as he was sent flying back. The demon now had shattered knees and a blasted eye, Azaria recovered from the recoil by doing a mid-air backflip while Noah concentrated his fire on one knee.

Yakushi kept his head down as his eyes started flashing red, and his right arm was entering demon form and back from time to time. He pulled his arm to himself, pushed his comrades aside and dashed off to a nearby alley.

"Yakushi!" shouted Emile.

Just before anyone knew it, the demon priest jumped into the giant mouth, and soon all the other demons followed. Everyone took the chance to regroup and tried to figure out how to seal the giant mouth.

"Hey, where did Yakushi go?" asked Jenova.

"He just dashed off! Ran away…. Or I think he needed to throw up?" wondered Emile.

"Where did he…" said Cai.

Before she could finish, a demon rose from the giant mouth, it was the demon priest, only now, the horns were bigger, it had four giant wings, six arms, and a very grotesque looking body.

"What the shit?" shouted Norami.

"Ugh! That's gross!" said Darren.

Without another word, Azaria pointed his guns at its head and started to open fire.

"Eat lead shit face!" he shouted.

All shots were direct hits, but the demon barely flinched, despite the bullets entering its body, instead, it just laughed.

"What the hell? It's laughing at me!"

"I'll give it something to laugh about!" added Darren as he threw a big bag.

Just when the bag touched the demon, Darren pulled out a switch and triggered it. The bag gave off a huge explosion, blinding everyone in the area.

"WOAH!" shouted Emile. "What did you put in there?"

"In a way you could say…. A mini warhead…." Said Darren, giving a grin. "Witness the power of…"

The explosion clouds and smokes then cleared up, despite a point blank explosion, the demon was barely hurt.

"AW COME ON!" shouted Darren, throwing the switch on the ground.

"Witness the power of AW COME ONE!... Hmm…" said Emile. "This one's going to the journal…"

"HEY QUIT MOCKING ME!"

The demon gave out a loud roar as black souls started to fly all around, causing fear to the group.

"Damn… I… I can't move…" said Norami.

"N-Nor could I….." said Jenova.

"Stand your ground!" shouted Emile. "It's drawing out your fear! Bring out all…"

Before he could finish, the demon suddenly appeared behind Emile and kicked him. Emile hit a wall and was left unconscious.

"EMILE!" shouted Samantha.

Samantha then tried to activate her Haiten arts, but her hands were shivering so much, she could barely focus. Jenova then tried to take aim, but she was fidgeting so much, she could barely point her rifle at the demon.

"W-what's going on?... I feel… scared…." Said Jenova.

"D-Damn it…" said Norami as she dropped her whip and fell backwards.

The demon then continued to laugh as the group cowered in deep fear and dropped to their knees.

"No…. Damn it! Not like this…." Said Cai as she tried to transform to her angel form. "DASHIT!"

Suddenly from out of nowhere, there was also another loud roar. The demon turned to see where it came from. There on the rooftops, stood a humanoid looking demon. With glowing red eyes, a blade attached to its left forearm, an almost "V" shaped head, and two pairs of wings by its waist making it look like a long coat.

"What? Oh shit…. Another demon?..." said Azaria.

"No…. one sign of the V shaped head….. it's more than a d-demon…" said Emile.

"It's a devil…." Added Darren.

"Shit…. We've got to get out of here now…." Said Jenova.

The group struggled to get up and run for it, but they were too afraid to move. Samantha and Norami then ended up curling themselves up and started to murmur to themselves, breathing into their cold palms.

The demon priest then sent the black souls to attack the devil, but just before the first strike, the devil appeared behind them with its sword drawn out. The devil switched stance and slowly withdrew its blade into the sheath merged to its arm. With the clicking sound of the sword being sheathed, every single black soul was wiped out, and the demon priest was blown back.

The demon priest got up and summoned fireballs in each of its hands, after it charged up the fire balls, it began throwing a whole barrage at the devil. There was a huge explosion, and the demon just laughed more and more while throwing more fireballs. But suddenly, every single one of its wings was sliced off, the demon roared in pain as in crashed down on the ground.

"What…. What happened?" said Noah, getting up.

The group were now out of the fear effect, but their bodies felt weakened. They tried to regroup and move somewhere safe while the two hell spawns fight.

"Why're they fighting each other anyway?" complained Samantha. "Aren't they from the same side?"

"Maybe they had relationship problems…" added Noah.

"Let's just get out of here first!" said Cai.

The devil then slowly approached the demon as it tried to get up, the demon yet again tried to summon another fire ball, but before it could even lift a finger, the devil took a step back, held its sword. Within a split second, the devil only pulled the sword an inch out of its sheath and sheathed it back, making the click sound. From the group's eyes, the devil barely pulled its sword out, but slowly, the demon's arms was falling off. Blood started gushing out of the wounds as it roared again in pain.

The devil then drew out its sword, sliced the air a few times, and turned around, having its back face the demon, and slowly sheathing its sword. Once again, with the clicking sound of the sword being sheathed, the demon was mutilated.

"Holy shit…. Just like that…" said Darren.

The devil then turned its attention to the group.

"Oh shit! We've got to move!" shouted Jenova.

The devil then slowly walked towards the group, extending its hand towards them. Azaria, Noah and Jenova took up their guns and took aim at its head.

"Shoot it down!" shouted Darren.

The three shooters pulled the trigger, and the devil just merely dashed to the sides, avoiding the bullets until the whole group was out of ammo.

"Shit… we're dry!" shouted Azaria.

Just before they knew it, the devil was standing right in front of them, just staring at them with its red glowing eyes. And the group, just had their hearts beating really fast, fearing what the devil did to the demon, might do so to them too.

"This…" thought Cai. "This is not how it's supposed to end…. Not like this…."


	32. Contract 32: Fighting within

The devil suddenly held its head and started to shake around, struggling and punching the air.

"UGH! ARGGHH!" shouted the devil.

"What the?" said Emile.

The devil kept on screaming and struggling, until it spread its wings, jumped into the air and flew away. The group was stunned by that experience, a devil right in front of them, and yet they were still breathing.

"Lord have mercy…" said Emile, making the sign of the cross.

"W-w-we're alive…" said Azaria.

They then heard a crash nearby, it caught their attention as they went to investigate.

"Ugh…. Somebody give me a hand…" said a familiar voice.

"Eh? That voice, sounds familiar…" said Samantha.

In the nearby alleyway, buried in concrete and trash, was Yakushi, the group dug and got him out.

"Ugh….. I don't feel so good…" said Yakushi. "What the…. Aw hell I stink!"

"Yakushi!" said Cai, hugging him. "Where the hell did you… aw hell…. You weren't kidding about the stink part…"

"Why did you run off just now?" asked Emile.

"I….." said Yakushi, recalling what happened.

Yakushi actually ran off to hide from his friends, he felt really uneasy as he felt a drastic change in him, soon, he transformed into that same devil that killed the demon priest.

"Uh… Hey… Yakushi!" said Norami.

"W-What?" said Yakushi, shaking his head.

"What happened?"

"I… I had to throw up earlier…." Lied Yakushi. "Was really dizzy you know…. Not pretty…"

"You alright now?" asked Jenova.

"More or less…. What happened to the demon priest?"

"We'll tell you when we get you washed up and back in action…I suggest we all go back for now."

"Agreed…" added Darren.

The team, headed back to the headquarters and patched themselves up, Yakushi washed himself up and just jumped on his bed, thinking of how he's going to control his demonic power. He looked at his hand and tried to transform to the devil form, but he had second thoughts as he was still in headquarters and he might go berserk again.

"Damn it…" he thought. "I knew everything that happened, how I killed that demon, but…. How did I do it?"

Yakushi looked into the mirror and began to wonder, suddenly, his reflection started to move on its own.

"Holy shit!" he said.

The reflection then just walked out of the mirror, now, just standing right in front of Yakushi, was another him.

"I must be dreaming…" said Yakushi.

"Apparently… you're not…" said the reflection.

The reflection then transformed to a devil, Yakushi wanted to quickly draw his gun out, but before he knew it, the devil form had his blade on Yakushi's neck.

"What the…" gasped Yakushi.

"Too slow Yakushi…. Let's go play… somewhere else…" said the devil.

"Wait… what?"

The devil then pulled Yakushi closer to it and just disappeared into thin air. They then appeared in the middle of an open field, the sky was dark, only the light of the moon lit the place, it was windy, cold, and the place reeks of fear. Yakushi and the devil were standing on opposite ends of the field.

"Where the hell is this?" shouted Yakushi.

"Let's just say this is my favourite playground… Look around, there's no way out…. Keep running and you'll just be seeing more of the field." said the devil.

Yakushi then pulled out his guns and started blasting at the devil, but the devil just merely whacks every bullet off with its blade. Yakushi then notices that the blade the devil is wielding is very similar to his.

"You're me aren't you…" asked Yakushi.

"Took you long enough to notice…" said the devil.

"I could've sworn you were some doppelganger posing as the wrong guy…"

"Sad to say…. I'm not…"

Yakushi then holstered his guns and drew out his sword, still sheathed. Without warning, the demon suddenly appeared behind him and attempted to slice his head off. Yakushi dived forward, avoiding the attack and quickly drew out his sword and gave a full force swing. The devil parried and attacked him with incredible speed. Yakushi tried to defend against all the attacks, but the devil was too fast, he got a number of cuts all over his body.

"Shit… he's too fast!" exclaimed Yakushi.

Yakushi couldn't take such rapid damage, he performed a backflip and tried to keep distance from the demon. But when he landed, the demon was already charging for him.

"What the?"

The demon flipped its sword around and knocked Yakushi on the stomach with the hilt of the sword. Yakushi was sent flying back and struggled on the floor, holding his stomach, groaning in pain.

"You're pathetic…" said the demon.

Yakushi struggled to get up, but the impact was quite strong, he felt that his stomach was sunken in a bit. He started coughing out blood, but he stabbed his sword on the ground and pushed himself up. Yakushi started feeling angry, his blood boiled and started growling as he breathed.

"Let's play then…" said Yakushi. "HHAAHH!'

Yakushi then charged for the devil, with his blade on one hand, and the sheath on the other, as if it was dual blades, just that the sheath was held backwards. Once again, Yakushi and the devil were clashing blades, only that, Yakushi started to get a little faster. The devil still managed to inflict more cuts on him, but Yakushi ignored the pain and increased his attacking rate.

"No way…." thought the devil.

"DIE!" shouted Yakushi.

Yakushi's fury got the devil on edge, but it wasn't long until his body couldn't take the pressure. Soon, he started to falter.


	33. Contract 33: Control

"ugh… shit…" said Yakushi.

Yakushi's body started to falter, he couldn't take too much pressure, let alone exert force. He started to lose control of his body, his grip on his sword started to loosen and his eyebrows were getting heavy. Yakushi couldn't think straight to find a way to escape to catch a breather, soon enough, he dropped his sword. The devil took the chance and gave a knee attack to his face, Yakushi flinched and moved backwards. The devil picked up Yakushi's sword and lunged both blades at him.

Yakushi got impaled by two of the same swords, he bent down and coughed out blood, trying to control the pain, but he couldn't any longer.

"Ugghhh!" growled Yakushi. "S-S-Shit…."

"Well how about that…." Said the devil. "Here I thought this legendary demon hunter was some big shot, now you're just crying while both my blade AND YOURS are right through your stomach…."

Yakushi started feeling weaker, his vision blurred, and he coughed out more blood. The devil wanted to toy with him more, so he slowly moved in both blades deeper into Yakushi's body.

"GAHH!" shouted Yakushi.

"That's better…. Liking the pain?" laughed the devil.

"What the hell do you want…."

"Still don't remember how I became a part of you is it?"

"A part of me?"

"You're worthless…."

The devil then quickly pulled out both swords from Yakushi. Yakushi fell backwards with his arms trying to reach for the devil. But before he fell, the devil lightly swung his blade and gave Yakushi a cut on the palm. The devil then lunged Yakushi's sword into Yakushi's chest, Yakushi growled in pain one last time, soon enough, he was motionless, blood flowed from his body.

"To think I ended up in the hands of a punk like this…. What the shit…" said the devil as he walked away.

It then started to rain, thunder and lightning struck greatly. Despite the Redemption blade shoved down his chest, Yakushi had little strength left, he was still alive, barely.

"I was never as good as I thought I'd be…." He thought. "No…. it can't end …. Like this…"

Yakushi then grabbed the blade with both his hands and tried to pull it out.

"This… isn't over…"

Slowly, the blade was coming out, Yakushi had to endure the slow and massive pain. Yakushi's eyes started to flash red as he pulled out another few inches of the blade out.

"Not…. By a Longshot!"

Yakushi kept on pulling the blade out, the Redemption started to spark with every inch Yakushi pulls out. Soon after, Yakushi was transforming to the devil form, and the blade was burning with black fire.

"You…. Can go to hell!" shouted Yakushi, with a demonic voice.

Yakushi managed to pull the blade off his chest and quickly dashes towards the devil, attempting to slice its head off.

"What the?" shouted the devil.

The devil managed to defend in time, Yakushi lands a straight kick to the devil's torso, opened up his wings and flew into the sky. From there, he withdrew his sword, and opened both his palms. Thunder and lightning struck repeatedly, as Yakushi started to generate electricity on both his palms. The lightning from the sky aided his charge, and soon enough, the lightning on his palms were black.

The devil sheathed his sword, switched stances and prepares to counter. Yakushi then closes his wings and dived down with tremendous speed. The devil knew what to do and waited for the timing to counter. Just before the strike, the devil gave a smirk and attempted to slide to the side and slice Yakushi in half.

"Game over…" said the devil.

The devil quickly drew out its sword and landed a lightning fast strike on Yakushi's body. But in a split second, Yakushi just appeared behind the devil and lunged both his hands into the devil's body. The devil absorbed the black lightning and was sent flying back. The devil recovered from the attack but Yakushi was already about to land his next attack, he combined both of the black lightning balls and held it on one hand, and drew out his sword on the other. Yakushi punched the hilt of the blade as it started to spark all over in black lightning.

"What is this?" shouted the devil.

Yakushi slowly walked towards the devil, black lightning sparking all over his body.

"Even if I have to live with a devil inside, so be it….. But no way in hell you're going to take over my body! Your power is mine now!" shouted Yakushi.

Yakushi raised up his hand, and black aura came out from the devil. Yakushi was absorbing the devil's power, the devil screamed and groaned as every cell of power was drained from it. Soon, the devil transformed back to Yakushi's reflection.

"Game over…" said Yakushi.

The reflection then picked up its sword and charged straight at Yakushi, just before the strike, Yakushi merely catches the blade, clenched his fist and broke the sword.

"Impossible…" said the reflection.

Yakushi then kicks the reflection on the knee and suddenly appears behind it with the Redemption drawn out. He flips the sword around and slowly inserts it back into its sheath. With the clicking sound of the sword, the reflection fell to the ground and disappears. A portal then appears on the spot where the reflection was killed. Yakushi transforms back and jumps into the portal, he was transported back to his room.

"Was it all a dream?..." he thought.

Yakushi looks into the mirror, sees that his reflection was following his every move. He clenched his fists and transforms to a devil, and then transforms back. He finally has the ability to transform at will.

"How ironic…. Devil hunting devils…"

Yakushi then heard someone knocking on the door, it was Cai, she opened the door and saw Yakushi just staring at the mirror. Before she could say a thing, Yakushi approached her and hugged her.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"I honestly don't know…" said Yakushi, with a lost face.

"Did something happen?"

Yakushi just continued to give a lost face, thinking of what would happen if Cai or anyone found out about him being a devil. What's worse is he knew that Cai was half angel, automatically means that she's hostile to any demon and devil.

"Life's just dandy…" murmured Yakushi.

"Say what?" said Cai.

"Huh? No it's nothing!"


	34. Contract 34: Lock and Load

"We've got a problem by the way…" said Cai.

"Don't we always?" sighed Yakushi.

"You only realize that now?"

"Did you?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind, what's up?"

"What's up? WHAT'S UP? I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S UP!"

"Uh…"

"SAMANTHA, JENOVA AND NORAMI FORCED DARREN TO TAKE THEM BACK TO THE HAITEN VILLAGE!"

"Oh I se….. wait… WHAT DAFAUK?"

"DAFAUKINGSHIT YES!"

"W-Why?"

"I'm guessing they want to strike back at the village, take it back!"

"Shit they're diving into hell itself…. We've got to go get them then!"

Yakushi and Cai then headed for the armory, there they saw Azaria, Emile, and Noah, fully geared up. Azaria was wearing a black coloured riot class Kevlar armor, and a riot helmet with a black tinted visor. He was equipped with a pair of Glock 18's holstered on both his thighs, had a SAW with a drum magazine on his back, and holding a black coloured SCAR with an attached M203 grenade launcher.

"I'm ready when you are…" said Azaria.

Emile was wearing a brown long coat and a fedora with a little feather attached to it, he sort of looked like a modern style of Sherlock Holmes. Except that, when he opened up his coat, he was packed with a pair of lugers, MP7's, MP5K's and P90 Submachine guns.

"Did I pack too much?" asked Earl.

Lastly, Noah was wearing snow-camo cargo pants with leg armor, full metal elbow pads and a utility vest. On his right thigh he holstered the sawn off shotgun, he was armed with a SAFIR rifle and had several drum magazines on his back as well as more STANAG magazines all around his waist.

"Armed and ready to go!" shouted Noah.

"Time to suit up then…" said Yakushi.

Yakushi and Cai grabbed some gear from the armory and geared up, while the others hopped into Yakushi's old Mustang GT.

Cai was now wearing a black battle suit, along with a utility belt and vest. She holstered her blades on the side of each leg and had a pair of USP's holstered on her thighs.

Yakushi suited in his old armor again, full joint pads, utility vest, gas mask and SWAT helmet. He holstered his two pistols behind his waist and the sword on the left side.

"Funny, you're not taking much firepower?" asked Cai.

"I could say the same for you." Said Yakushi.

"Touché…"

"Let's get a move on then!"

The group hopped into the car and moved out. Although on the way, they encountered multiple demon sightings, but they were almost seen since Yakushi was speeding away.

"Are they on the lookout for us?" asked Emile.

"I believe so…. We've got no time to bother with these guys first!" said Cai.

"Noted…. You ever wonder if there's someone else out there fighting the demons too? I don't think we can be the only ones.."

"In this world, don't expect so, killing demons wasn't a very popular job, and many people died trying…." Added Yakushi.

"So why'd you take the job?"

"Uh….. It….. It's a personal matter…. Don't bother with it…"

Yakushi continued to speed through the city and on to the highway, from there, the group saw a sight they never imagined. The black towers were still standing, but many black figures were flying around each one. Most of the skyscrapers had argosax demons plunging out of them, the city is as good as hell itself now, demons rule the streets and skies.

"Oh my Lord!" gasped Emile.

"Guess we're going to have to move soon…" said Yakushi.

Suddenly, a whole house just crashed right in front of them. Yakushi quickly turned to the side and avoided the obstacle, he drifted around it and came to a stop.

"DAFAUK?" shouted Cai.

The group looked out the window and saw that one of the argosax demons was already engaging them.

"ARGOSAX!" shouted Azaria.

Yakushi pushed a button to open all the windows and the roof so that the others could shoot the argosax while he drove.

"Eat lead you sick bastard!" shouted the group.


	35. Contract 35: Reinforcements

But due to the large size of the argosax, bullets didn't really have much effect on it. It raised its arm up high, and had it coming straight down on them.

"Better get a move on!" shouted Cai.

"I'm on it! I'm on it!" shouted Yakushi as he changed gears and accelerated. "Hang on!"

Just before the argosax slammed the car, Yakushi performed a quick 180 degree drift while shifting to the left. He pulled out the Retribution magnum and fired a single shot. The large calibre bullet went straight for the argosax's eye and caused it to flinch. Yakushi quickly holstered the magnum, got a hold of the steering wheel and turned the car back to its normal direction.

"Nice shot!" shouted Emile.

"Quite the Longshot eh?" said Cai.

Yakushi looked at the mirror and winked at them, then he had everyone have their heads in the car as he flipped switches to close all windows and the roof.

"No point in finishing it off, we'll need all the ammo we could spare." Said Yakushi.

"Aye… Good thinking!" said Emile.

"It was a close call though!" added Noah.

"I've had closer…" said Yakushi.

"Show off…"

"I heard that…"

"D'OH!"

"I suggest we reload and prep up before we arrive at the village." Said Azaria.

"Agreed, everyone do an ammo check!" said Yakushi.

Everyone reloaded their weapons as Yakushi continued speeding away to the Haiten village. The argosax roared in anger and wanted to pursue them, but due to the high acceleration of the car, it just gave up and walked away, with a bleeding eye.

"Longshot eh?" thought Yakushi, recalling what Cai said. "Well, don't call me that for nothing…."

After a few hours of speeding, Yakushi noticed there was smoking coming from an area just outside the Haiten village.

"What in the world?" asked Emile.

"Let's check it out!" said Azaria.

Yakushi switched gears and increased speed, hoping it wasn't what he's thinking of. But turns out, it was, the smoke was coming from a crashed helicopter, the exact same one Darren pilots.

"Shit shit shit!" said Yakushi as he rushed out of the car.

"Noah! Emile! Let's keep them covered!" said Azaria.

Yakushi, Cai and Emile went to investigate the crash site while the other two covered them. It was a mess, the helicopter was completely burned out, the blades were scattered all over the place, the tail was bent like a boomerang and the door was jammed. Yakushi tried to force the door open, but it wouldn't budge. He drew out the Redemption and sliced the door off, but it released a huge pile of thick black smoke.

"HOLY SHIT!" shouted Yakushi, jumping back from the sudden burst of smoke.

"SAMANTHA! NORAMI! JENOVA! DARREN!" shouted Emile. "HELLO?"

"Please don't be dead…" thought Yakushi as he tried to clear the smoke and enter the wrecked helicopter.

Cai went to investigate the other areas of the helicopter, but found nothing. Emile didn't have any luck either, and soon, Yakushi as well.

"Just a plain old wreckage…" said Cai.

"No bodies…" said Yakushi. "They're still alive!"

"That's a relief! Scared the shit out of me!"

"The Haiten village isn't far, I suggest we proceed on foot" said Emile. "We've got to…"

Before he could finish, they heard an explosion coming from the village itself, the group quickly grabbed their gear and dashed towards the site. They made it towards the main gate of the village, and found a lot of dead demon bodies.

"Looks like we missed the party…" said Cai.

"Everyone be on your guard…. Search thoroughly!" said Yakushi as he drew out his magnums.

The group stuck together and proceeded with caution, until they heard the sound of swords clashing.

"OVER THERE!" shouted Emile, pointing towards the main temple.

They rushed towards the area, they noticed the door was locked, so Azaria decided to place a charge on the lock while the rest of the group grabbed cover.

"Charge set…" said Azaria. "CLEAR!

Azaria quickly jumped to the side of the door as the charge triggered, blowing up the door. The whole group drew out their guns and entered the temple.

"Freeze!" shouted Noah.

The smoke from the explosion cleared up, as they saw Darren, Jenova, Norami and Samantha fighting the elder and its elite followers.

"Well well, if it isn't the rest of the group…" said Salazar.

"You again…" said Yakushi.

"My my… such attitude…. You haven't changed one bit boy!"

"GUYS!" shouted Samantha. "How did you?"

"Save the story telling for later, we've got bigger problems now.." said Emile.

"I agree…" said Yakushi as he pointed the Revenge magnum behind him and pulled the trigger.

Despite it being a blind shot, he managed to give a headshot to a demon that was attempting to strike from the back.

"What the? How did you?" gasped Noah.

"Just stay sharp…" said Yakushi.

"Hmm… impres…." Said Salazar.

"Enough talk….. kill them all…" echoed a voice in Yakushi's head.

"My thoughts exactly…" said Yakushi as he dashed into combat.

"OPEN FIRE!" shouted Azaria.

Cai immediately transformed to her angel form and rushed towards Samantha and aided her in fighting the elder. Emile headed straight for Darren who was wounded and low on ammunition. Azaria and Noah regrouped with Jenova and Norami and formed a small circle with their backs facing each other. Yakushi wanted to go one on one with the shade Salazar, but didn't transform to his demon form due to his friends' presence.

"I feel something different about you boy!" said Salazar. "Very intriguing…"

"Shut up and die…" said Yakushi, in a very cold voice.

Yakushi began his attack by blasting Salazar with multiple rounds, but the shade merely appears from point to point, dodging the bullets, getting closer to Yakushi. Yakushi knew this kind of trick, just when the Salazar appeared right in front of him, he ducked as Salazar attempted to punch him.

"What the?" gasped Salazar.

Yakushi discreetly transformed his right arm to the devil form and gave a solid upper cut to Salazar's chin, sending him flying up. Just after the punch, Yakushi swung his arm around a bit and transformed it back to normal.

"Ugh!" said Salazar, trying to recover. "Impossible… How did you… I knew it! You are a.."

Yakushi then shot Salazar multiple times on the torso, every shot was powered with demonic energy, and it managed to severely wound Salazar. But with Salazar's shade powers, he managed to regenerate almost instantly.

"You're good….." said Salazar. "But I'm better…"

Yakushi holstered his magnums and drew out his the Redemption blade, Salazar on the other hand transformed to his shade form, now it looks like Yakushi fighting a cloud with a face.

"This is going to be fun…" thought Yakushi. "Let's take this outside then!"

Yakushi then dashed out of the temple, Salazar followed as well. Cai noticed Yakushi bringing Salazar out and thought that if he was able to handle a shade on his own.

"DASHIT! Samantha needs my help too!" she thought. "This… is crazy….."

"Tell me about it…" added Samantha. "Good thing you all arrived whe…"

"YOU HAD TO COME BACK?"

"…Yes…"

"DAFAUKINGSHIT!"


	36. Contract 36: Black Cloud

"You like to take this outside do you?" said Salazar.

"Just needed some space…" said Yakushi, tilting his neck sideways, and cracking his knuckles.

Salazar summoned a small black ball and shot it up into the air, it exploded and turned the sky dark. Thunder and lightning danced the skies, while Yakushi was trying to focus his devil power onto his weapons. Just when the next lightning struck, Yakushi disappeared from plain sight and appeared behind Salazar. He transformed his right arm again and was about to land a straight punch, but Salazar could manipulate his cloud-formed body and created a hole on himself, letting Yakushi just fly through him.

"What the…" gasped Yakushi.

Salazar then kicked Yakushi on the back, returned to his normal form and summoned a very brutal looking chain sickle. The blade was jagged and looked corrupted, while the hammer part was full of spikes and skull fragments.

"There's something special about you boy! Being able to transform your arm like that….. Not possible for a human being!" said Salazar as he slowly approached Yakushi.

"Shut up…" said Yakushi as he pulled out both his magnums and started blasting Salazar.

Salazar started spinning his blade and deflected all the bullets effortlessly.

"Guess it's like that huh?"

Yakushi then gripped his magnums tighter as black lightning started to spark from the magnums, soon, it started to glow with red aura, and Yakushi's hands were transformed.

"Dodge this…."

Yakushi started blasting both magnums, and with every shot, the blast from the muzzles gave a massive shockwave. He repeatedly blasted multiple shots while screaming his lungs out, Salazar tried to deflect the bullets, but the impact was strong enough to push him back a bit, even some bullets wounded him. But once again, his regeneration ability just activated itself and Salazar was back fresh again.

"I'm tired of playing games…" said Salazar.

Salazar then just disappeared into thin air, Yakushi looked everywhere, but all he heard was the thunder striking, soon, it began to pour heavily.

"Why does it have to rain in every battle I have?" thought Yakushi.

Yakushi holstered his magnums and drew out his Redemption blade, standing by for Salazar to attack. He scanned the area for a while, until he spotted a silhouette, thinking it was Salazar. Yakushi was about to move in for an attack until he spotted another silhouette to his right.

"What the?" thought Yakushi.

As he looked around, more silhouettes started to appear, all bearing the exact same shape and size. As they got closer, Yakushi noticed, they were all Salazar.

"You're using clones to do your dirty work now Salazar?" shouted Yakushi.

Just in a split second, all the clones were right above him, about to slam their hammer end of the chain sickle on him. Yakushi tried to avoid the attack by diving out of the area, he successfully avoided the attack, but the clones just grabbed their bladed end and swung it all around, Yakushi ended up getting cut on his left cheek.

"Ugh… shit…." Growled Yakushi.

Yakushi then threw the Redemption up in the sky, and started performing numerous hand signs. Lightning struck as the Redemption came falling from the sky, but accompanied with cloned versions of it.

"Go to hell…" said Yakushi.

Each of the blades landed on a clone, right on the forehead. The cloned blades broke as if they were glass and the original Redemption returned to Yakushi's hands. The corpses of the clones soon turned to smoke and merged to form a single Salazar, the original one.

"Use clones to kill clones…. Simple as that.." smirked Yakushi. "Can't face me one on one?"

"My my…. A rather feisty one…. You must be set on a leash….." said Salazar. "If it's one on one you want…. So be it!"

Salazar was then lifted into the air, with his arms spread, suddenly he was emerged with fire, and then extinguished, just like that. But Salazar came crashing down in a different image. He had a very similar image to the demon priest the group faced before, only thing, this was bigger. It had gigantic wings too, and a mouth on its stomach.

"Witness the power!" shouted Salazar.

"You're just another demon to be slain….." said Yakushi.

"And yet you are one yourself… are you going to kill your fellow brethren? We are the superior race can't you see? It's time for evolution to take its course! For we are the advanced species! The humans and angels must …"

Yakushi then pulls out the Retribution, and had his arm transformed, amplifying the power.

"You talk too much…" he said as he pulled the trigger.

The large bullet then went straight for one of Salazar's horns, with that shot, Salazar's horn snapped off.

"UGH! YOU FOOL!" shouted Salazar.

"Let's play…"

Yakushi jumped up into the air, spinning like a bullet and directed himself at Salazar, he was like a human drill. Salazar then summoned his deadly chain sickle and tried to deflect Yakushi's attacks. He managed to get Yakushi out of the spinning motion and breathed out black fire from his mouth. In mid-air, Yakushi started spinning his blade like a fan, directing the fire away from him. He immediately pulled out the Vengeance and fired away. Salazar flew around to avoid the bullets and soon got close to Yakushi and grabbed him in one of his arms. Yakushi was immobile as his arms were sealed up too.

"Piece of shit!" said Yakushi.

Salazar was about to breath fire again on Yakushi, until Yakushi managed to throw the Redemption at one of Salazar's wings. Salazar screamed and released Yakushi, but Yakushi was on free fall, he extended his arm and the Redemption blade was flying towards him. Just before he hit the ground, he caught the blade, lunged it on the ground and stood on the handle of it.

"This is going to be fun." He thought. "Guess it's time to go devil…."


	37. Contract 37: Bad Bosses

The rest of the group were having a pretty hard time battling the Haiten elder and his elites. After a fearsome battle, Azaria and Noah were running out of ammunition, and Emile's medical supply was running low too.

"Can't take any more of this…." Said Azaria.

"We've got to keep on fighting!" panted Norami.

"What's the matter?" taunted the elder. "We're only getting warmed up…"

"Shut up you bitch!" shouted Samantha as she charged at the elder.

"Wait! Samantha!" shouted Cai.

Samantha unleashed all her fury on the elder, but the elder was able to deflect her attacks effortlessly, in the end, he knocked her weapons away and grabbed her by the neck. Samantha's power was draining as she transformed back to her normal self.

"SAMANTHA!" shouted Jenova.

In a split second, Jenova took a shot at the elder's head, but he merely whacks the bullet away with his own hands.

"Your accuracy is admirable Jenova…" said the elder.

The elder then threw Samantha towards Jenova, as she tried to catch her, the elder just appeared behind her. He then gave a thrust kick at her back and sent both herself and Samantha flying towards the wall.

"Still too slow…" said the elder.

Samantha and Jenova struggled to get up from the attack, Jenova tried to reach for her rifle, but it was kicked away by an elite who was laughing down on her.

"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" shouted Cai as she sliced the elite in half.

Cai then kicked the rifle towards Jenova and tried to get Samantha on her feet. The rest of the group formed up again, but they were cornered and outnumbered.

"Damn it! Every time we kill one, two more take its place!" complained Emile.

"The only way is to take the elder out himself!" added Norami.

"As if it's an easy job! One on one is almost suicide! And if all of us strike, who's holding out the elites?"

"Damn it!"

Azaria then gave a smirk, he pulled out two switches and activated them, directly behind the demons, there was a huge explosion. It managed to wipe out most of them, as for the remainders, he went all out on them.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE!" he shouted.

Demons tried to get close, but the full auto blast from his rifle kills them almost immediately.

"WAY TO GO AZARIA!" shouted Norami.

"When did… How did?" asked Noah.

"I dropped a few C4's before regrouping, tactics my friend! Tactics!" winked Azaria.

The elder was then pissed off, he wanted to summon more demon elites, but he needed time to do so, and he would be vulnerable then. But in the end, he just gave a smirk and levitated into the air.

"You fools! You think I need help to deal with you all?" he said.

"From the looks of things…. Yes?" said Noah.

"YOU FOOL!"

Emile was getting ticked off at the elder, he then pulled out his submachine guns and took aim.

"Shut up already!"

Emile started blasting full auto all the way, the elder then stuck his arm forward and stopped all the bullets in place. He then lunged his arm and sent all the bullets flying back. But Norami used her whip blade to create a whirlwind and sent them flying back at him. The elder didn't have time to stop the bullets, instead he summoned a black cloak and covered himself. The cloak managed to shield him, but once the bullets stopped flying, he released the cloak and saw that Samantha was already about to land a punch on his face.

"Shit…" thought the elder.

"EAT THIS!" shouted Samantha.

Samantha then successfully landed a direct hit on the elder's face, she sent him flying back, where Noah was waiting for him. Noah pulled out the saw-off shotgun and just at point blank, he blasted the elder away, but at the same time, the recoil sent Noah flying off also.

"I SWEAR WHAT'S WITH THE RECOIL!" shouted Noah as he flew away.

Jenova just watched Noah just fly across the room with a raised eyebrow and then turned her attention to the elder. She noticed her rifle on the floor and dashed for it, the elder noticed her going for the rifle and tried to intercept her, but Cai got in the way and unleashed a flurry of strikes. The elder however was able to parry the strikes, but as he turned his attention to Jenova, he saw that she was already taking aim at him.

Jenova's hands started to glow red and her rifle was releasing red smoke. She pulled the charging handle and loaded a new magazine.

"DIE!" she shouted.

Jenova pulled the trigger and a huge shell flew out of the rifle, spinning and tearing through the air with incredible speed, she landed a direct head shot at the elder.

"BULL'S EYE!" cheered Norami.

The elder was knocked down by the shot and was left immobile, they concluded that the elder was dead.

"Well that was easier than I thought…" said Emile.

But Emile spoke too soon, the elder just stood up and floated in the air, with not a scratch on his body.

"What the?" gasped Jenova.

"Impossible…" said Noah.

"Impossible?" said the elder. "Demonic power, there's no such thing as impossible…"

"You can go to hell!" shouted Azaria as he fired a few rounds.

The elder just merely deflected the bullets away by raising his hand, Azaria kept on firing, until finally, he ran out of ammo.

"NOT NOW!" complained Azaria.

The elder then rose up into the air, and emerged in flames.

"What's going on?" shouted Noah.

"This isn't good…" said Norami. "Everyone get ready!"

The elder then extinguished the flames, and appeared before the group in a totally different image. He had four gigantic arms, one holding a scythe, and another holding a cleaver. He also had a giant centipede head coming out of his back, just by looking at it, Emile almost threw up.

"Ugh…. Talk about disgusting…." Said Cai.

"I think I'm going to…" said Noah.

"I SWEAR TO HELL IF YOU THROW UP!"


	38. Contract 38: Power Overwhelming

"Let's finish this…" said Yakushi.

He pulled the Redemption off the ground and clenched his fists. Yakushi was then engulfed in black flames, lightning struck harder, and his eyes flashed red. Just in an instant, Yakushi was transformed to his devil form.

"Now you're under my control…" he said, looking at his hands.

"I knew it….. so you ARE a devil." Said Salazar.

Without a word, Yakushi just appeared right behind Salazar and unleashed a flurry of overpowering strikes.

"ARGH!" growled Salazar.

Yakushi's movement was impossible to observe due to incredible speed, he struck Salazar in all directions, slicing him up and dashing to another direction. Salazar was getting annoyed with the attacks, he then released a huge shockwave and halted Yakushi's attack. Yakushi was sent flying into the air, Salazar spread his wings and followed him, but just before he got to strike, Yakushi recovered and gave Salazar a punch to the torso. But Salazar's body had thick skin and the punch didn't really cause much damage.

Yakushi then tried to punch again, but this time, he pulled his arm all the way back. He clenched his fists as lightning sparked from his whole arm.

"Die…" he whispered, with a cold demonic voice.

Yakushi landed another punch again, but this time, his whole arm went through Salazar's body.

"NO!" shouted Salazar.

But Yakushi wasn't finished, he then lunged the Redemption blade into that same hole he made. He twisted the blade, and forcefully pulled it sideways. Salazar had already a huge line on his torso, after the slice, Yakushi spun around and finished the job by slicing the rest of the half. Both halves of Salazar crashed to the ground as Yakushi floated to the ground.

"Not much of a demon are you?..." he said.

Yakushi sheathed his blade and walked away. But from behind him, he heard very weird noises, and then a scream. He turned around to see what it was, but there was nothing there anymore, not even Salazar's two halves.

"What the…." Said Yakushi.

Suddenly from the back, Salazar, who wasn't in half anymore, smashed Yakushi to the ground. He continued smashing and pummelling Yakushi, and then stepped on his neck.

"How the hell!" growled Yakushi.

"Insolent bastard! Hahaha! Did you think you'd defeat me so easily?" said Salazar, holding a blade by Yakushi's neck.

Salazar continued stepping on Yakushi's neck, at the same time twisting his foot and pressing his blade on Yakushi's neck. Yakushi struggled to break free, trying to push Salazar's foot and blade off him.

"Know your place dog!" shouted Salazar as he shoved Yakushi. "You possess incredible power…..oh I can tell, I'm never wrong! With it, we can be kings of the whole world! Even Heaven and Hell!"

"The hell you talking about? You want my power?" said Yakushi.

"In some sense…. I want you, to join me! We are devils after all! We are brothers! So I'm giving you a choice, join me… or I'll make you watch your loved ones die, and then you, follow with a nice, and slow death…."

"GO BLOW YOURSELF!" shouted Yakushi as he spat on Salazar.

"How incompetent! Very well… Guess I'll absorb your power once I slice your head off!"

Salazar lifted his blade and was about to cleave Yakushi's head off, but Yakushi gave a smirk, lifted his hands, and summoned the Vengeance and Retribution magnums, both magnums were engulfed in heavy black flames, and were sparking with lightning.

"GAAAHH!" shouted Yakushi as he pulled the trigger.

Each magnum released a huge bullet followed by a huge shockwave that sent Salazar flying back, and his blade in the air. Yakushi quickly got up and flew into the air, reaching for Salazar's blade. He grabbed it and came crashing down on Salazar, was trying to get up from the shockwave. Half way towards Salazar, Yakushi threw the blade towards him and shot another round. The bullets directly hit the hilt of the blade he threw, and it came crashing down like a meteor on Salazar. The whole blade was stuck on him, and it also impaled the ground.

Even in deep pain, Salazar tried to pull the blade out, but it was stuck on the ground and he was rendered immobile. Yakushi, with blade in hand, then floated down on Salazar's body.

"I think I'll pass your invitation to your gay party…." He said.

Yakushi then kicked the blade and shoved it deeper into Salazar's body. He then used his own Redemption to open up Salazar's body. Salazar growled yet laughed in pain as his body was being ripped open. Yakushi kept digging his way by force until finally, he found Salazar's black heart.

"It's over…." Said Yakushi.

"For you at least!" added Salazar.

"Shut up…."

Yakushi then raised his blade up high, lightning struck the blade as it started to charge up and spark up heavy loads of electricity. He pointed the blade at Salazar's heart, and had it come crashing down on it.

"NOW!" shouted Yakushi. "YOU! DIE!"


	39. Contract 39: Reveal

"LET'S JUST KILL THIS THING AND GET IT OVER WITH!" shouted Cai as she charged straight for the elder.

"Ugh! Will this ever end?" growled Norami.

Unfortunately, with one swipe, the elder created a huge gust of wind that blew them all back, he didn't even have to put in effort to perform such an attack.

"Damn it!" shouted Jenova as she struggled to take aim.

Emile then pulled out his submachine guns and tried to fire at the elder, but the gust he made merely sent the bullets flying back. The elder then disappeared into thin air and reappeared right above the group, about to land a heavy strike down.

"MOVE!" shouted Azaria.

The whole group dived to avoid the attack, but sadly, Jenova's leg was caught in the strike, she screamed out loud and tried to crawl away.

"JENOVA!" shouted Samantha.

Samantha then tried to activate her Haiten arts, but she was too tired to even spark it up. Instead, she just dashed towards the elder recklessly.

"Hmph! Futile…." Said the elder as he just punched Samantha out of the way.

Samantha then flew towards Noah and slammed on the wall, soon, both were unconscious.

"Shit!" shouted Emile as he ran towards the two.

"Not this time…" said the elder.

The elder then punched the ground, causing it to shake and having Emile fall on the ground. Upon his fall, he dropped his medical kit, the elder noticed it and picked it up.

"NO!" shouted Emile. "Give it back you fiendish reject!"

But the elder just merely crushed it with his fist, and then swiped Emile away with one of his wings. Norami tried to run and catch Emile, but she ended up being swiped away by another one of the elder's wings. And again, two more were knocked out.

Cai and Azaria were still standing, Jenova was critically injured, Yakushi was fighting outside, and the rest were unconscious.

"This isn't how I'd thought it be…." Said Azaria.

Cai was getting a little nervous, and more worried that it would be the end of the line here. But she tried to gather what little courage and power she has left in order to save her friends.

"This isn't the end…" murmured Cai. "It can't end like this… there's so much more to do….."

But Cai was getting really tired, and she felt like her powers were already straining. Her view was getting blurry, she can't stand up straight, and her angel form was glitching.

"DIE YOU BITCH!" shouted Azaria as he fired off all the ammo he had left.

Azaria eventually ran out of ammunition, he checked his pockets and pouches for explosives and magazines, all he had was a pistol with only five rounds in it.

"Well this isn't good…." He said.

"Damn it!" shouted Cai. "Where's Yakushi when you need him?"

Suddenly, Salazar's body came crashing through the main door, he was already. There was a thick cloud of smoke, and there, a silhouette just appeared.

"What is this?" gasped the elder.

"YAKUSHI!" shouted Cai.

The group smiled as they waited for Yakushi to enter the room and assist them, but as the smoke cleared up, their smile slowly dropped out. There, standing in the wrecked door war, was the devil form of Yakushi.

"A-another demon?" gasped Jenova.

"W-where's Yakushi?" asked Azaria.

Cai then took a closer look, she immediately recognized the blade the devil was using, it was the Redemption.

"It can't be….." said Cai.

"What is it?" exclaimed Azaria.

"That sword it's wielding…. That's Yakushi's….."

"NO! THAT CAN'T BE TRUE! HE CAN'T BE KILLED!"

The devil Yakushi then turned his attention towards the elder and immediately appeared right behind him.

"Impossible! You're…" said the elder.

But before he could finish, the devil Yakushi slashed his whole waist. The elder started coughing out blood as the devil Yakushi just stared at his face and slowly sheathed his sword.

"It… can't…. be…" said the elder as he slowly got sliced into many pieces.

"No way…. Just one slash…." thought Jenova.

"We've got to get out of here!" shouted Azaria.

The devil Yakushi then turned his attention to the group, the group was stunned as they were already quite warned out and afraid of his power. Devil Yakushi then slowly walked towards them, raising out his hand, but Cai stood in the way, with her blades drawn out, and in battle stance.

"Get away from them…." She said.

"C-c-c-…." Said the devil.

"What?..."

"C-C-Caaiiii…."

"N-No way…."

"Azaria….."

"It can't be…" said Azaria.

"It's me….. Yakushi….."


End file.
